MOSES  [A3] 
By  Michel  Angelo 


DANIEL  WEBSTER   [43] 


CONTROL 


OF 


HEREDITY 


A  STUDY 

OF    THE 

GENESIS  OF  EVOLUTION  AND  DEGENERACY 


ILLUSTRATED  BY  DIAGRAMS  AND  TYPES  OF  CHARACTER 


BY 


CASPER  LAVATER  REDFIELD  [37] 


MONARCH    BOOK    COMPANY 

CHICAGO  PHILADELPHIA 


COPYRIGHTED  1903 

BY 
CASPER  L.   REDFIELD 


ALL  RIGHTS   RESERVED 


PREFACE. 


Travelers  tell  us  that  monkeys  will  watch  men  around  a  camp 
fire,  and  that  as  soon  as  the  men  leave,  the  monkeys  will  occupy 
their  places,  warming  themselves  till  the  fire  goes  out.  The  mon- 
keys can  appreciate  the  warmth  coming  from  the  fire,  but  they  do 
not  know  enough  to  keep  it  up  by  piling  on  more  wood.  Much 
less  do  they  know  how  to  start  a  fire  when  they  want  it. 

If  we  should  assume  these  monkeys  sitting  around  a  fire  and 
engaged  in  evolving  a  theory  of  combustion,  we  would  have  a  par- 
allel to  those  biologists  who  are  engaged  in  trying  to  give  us  a 
chemical  formula  for  heredity  without  having  the  least  idea  of 
how  to  manipulate  the  forces  of  evolution  so  as  to  originate  any 
desired  line  of  development,  or  to  maintain  it  for  succeeding  gener- 
ations when  the  advantageous  variation  has  been  originated  by 
accident.  Knowledge  that  carbon  unites  with  oxygen  in  certain 
definite  proportions  during  combustion  is  both  interesting  and  use- 
ful, but  its  usefulness  is  secondary  to  the  usefulness  of  knowing 
how  to  build  a  fire  when  wanted,  and  to  maintain  and  control  it 
when  it  is  built. 

Selection  has  been  an  instrument  by  which  breeders  have,  in 
a  few  generations,  vastly  improved  our  domestic  animals,  but  con- 
fessedly selection,  as  applied  to  the  lower  animals,  is  not  applicable 
to  civilized  man.  In  the  preparation  of  the  following  pages  it  has 
been  my  object  to  provide  a  simple  and  practical  process  of  light- 
ing and  controlling  the  fires  of  evolution,  particularly  in  their  appli- 
cation to  man.  The  evolution  of  man  is  essentially  the  evolution 


4  PREFACE. 

of  intellect,  and  given  a  process  by  which  the  intellectual  powers 
may  be  developed  from  generation  to  generation,  we  may  leave  it 
to  our  more  intelligent  posterity  to  find  ways  and  means  for  devel- 
oping themselves  along  any  desired  lines.  The  process  of  develop- 
ing the  intellectual  powers  of  future  generations  is,  however,  but 
one  branch  of  a  general  principle  involving  all  lines  of  evolution, 
and  this  branch  is  so  associated  with  the  other  branches  that  devel- 
opment along  one  line  involves  development  along  all  lines. 

In  demonstrating  this  principle  of  evolution  I  have  paid  par- 
ticular attention  to  the  genesis  of  intellectual  power,  and  the  proofs 
adduced  show  that  men  of  great  intellects  are  by  no  means  abnormal 
products,  but  are  the  result  of  natural  laws  working  along  easily 
understood  lines.  The  reason  why  such  men  as  Aristotle,  Cuvier, 
Darwin  and  Franklin  are  rare  in  the  history  of  the  world  is  shown 
to  be  because  the  antecedent  conditions  for  the  evolution  of  such 
men  have  been  unknown  and  have  arisen  fortuitously.  With  these 
conditions  known,  and  practically  every  man  being  capable  of  ful- 
filling his  share  of  them,  it  should  not  be  difficult  to  raise  the  intel- 
lectual powers  of  future  generations  to  a  plane  vastly  above  that  of 
the  present  day. 

It  may  seem  like  a  bold  proposition  to  tell  a  man  that  he  may 
cause  his  children  to  be  born  with  greater  or  less  intelligence  as  he 
chooses,  but  I  believe  that  those  who  will  read  the  following  pages 
will  see  that  this  is  true.  If  a  few  parents  are  induced  to  intelligently 
endow  their  children  with  better  brains  and  better  bodies  than  they 
would  have  done  by  the  operation  of  mere  chance,  then  I  shall  feel 
amply  repaid  for  whatever  trouble  I  have  taken  to  explain  that  which 
has  been  many  times  stated  but  which  has  been  persistently  mis- 
understood. C.  L.  REDFIELD. 

Chicago,  111.,  December,  1902. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

INTRODUCTION    .' 17 

Kinds  of  heredity — Great  facts  of  heredity — In- 
fluences affecting  heredity — Results  of  early  marriages — 
Mistakes  of  good  intentions — Removing  the  curses  of 
civilization — Regulating  marriages — Modern  conditions 
and  requirements. 

CHAPTER   I. 
INHERITANCE,  VARIATION  AND  SELECTION 25 

Examples  by  oak  trees  —  Three-legged  bitch  —  Mare 
Basto— Hornless  cattle— Kelleia— Colburn— Three-fingered 
Man  —  Three  nipples  —  Scalp  moving  —  Blushing  —  Left- 
handed — Discussion  of  examples. 

Telegony:  —  Quagga  colt  —  Horse  "Camel"  —  Mules  — 
Cecil's  remarks — Day's  comments — Hairless  bitch — Polled 
heifer — Chocolate-colored  ewes — Various  animals — Red- 
haired  son — Discussion. 

Atavism : — Pointer  bitch — Fox-terrier — Setter-spaniel — 
Malay  fowls — Essex  pigs — Double  tooth — Lame  man. 

Partial  Transmission : — United  toes — Cancer — Acacia — 
Discussion. 

Inheritance  by  sex:  —  Secondary  sexual  characters  — 
Trotting  horses— Sporting  dogs— Sheep  and  goats— Gout- 
Hairless  women — Insanity — Consumption — Skin  disease. 

Inheritance  at  corresponding  ages.  Examples: — Dar- 
win's rules — Tachygenesis. 

Selection:  —Examples  from  pigs  —  Methodical  selec- 
tion—Unconscious selection— Natural  selection— Discussion. 

5 


6  CONTENTS. 

PAGB 

In-and-in  breeding:— Used  for  fixing  characters— Evil 
effects  of. 

Prep  o  tency :  —  Defined  —  Males  usually  prepotent  — 
Chamoise  sheep. 

Growth. 

CHAPTER   II. 
THEORIES  OF  HEREDITY  AND  VARIATION 48 

Heredity  is  self-evident— Variation  demands  explan- 
ation—Variation defined  as  applying  to  characters— Con- 
genital and  acquired  characters  —  Variations  existing  at 
birth  are  congenital. 

Assigned  causes  of  congenital  variation: — Climate  and 
environment— Ancestral  use  and  disuse— Unlike  parents- 
Views  of  Aristotle  —  Inherited  mutilations  —  Lamarck's 
laws. 

Weismann's  theory:— Cells— Multiplication  of  cells- 
Conjunction  of  cells — Germ  cells  and  somatic  cells — Pro- 
pagation by  conjunction  of  cells — Continuity  of  the  germ 
plasm— Germ  cells  protected  from  exterior  influences— Neo- 
Darwinians  and  neo-Lamarckians  —  Conflict  between  their 
theories— Practical  necessity  of  knowledge  on  the  subject. 

CHAPTER    III. 
BASIS  OF  INVESTIGATION ,59 

The  problem  stated — Non-functional  characters — Func- 
tionally active  organs — Organs  compared — Effect  of  func- 
tional activity  —  Functional  capacity  —  Use-inheritance 
means  the  inheritance  of  acquired  functional  capacity — 
The  brain  as  a  functional  organ  selected  for  investigation. 

Deduction  from  Weismann's  theory: — Law  of  proba- 
bilities— Extent  of  variation — Relative  fertility  of  classes — 
Result  of  different  degrees  of  fertility — Present  condi- 
tions show  that  the  lower  classes  produce  more  rapidly  than 


WASHINGTON  [38] 


LINCOLN  [31] 


GRANT   [28] 


GEN.  ROBERT  E.  LEE   [51] 


ARISTOTLE  [A3] 


CONTENTS.  7 

PAGB 

the  higher  classes — The  consequence  according  to  Weis- 
mann's  theory  —  Testimony  of  the  nineteenth  century  — 
Parisian  skulls. 

Deduction  from  the  theory  of  use-inheritance: — Educa- 
tion of  successive  generations — Testimony  of  Greece,  Rome 
and  modern  times — Revival  of  learning — Eminent  men  in 
different  centuries  —  Fig.  i. —  One  hundred  great  men  — 
England  and  Scotland — United  States — Inventions  an  index 
to  mental  power. 

•    Comparison    of   Deductions: — Objections    to   the    evi- 
dence of  use-inheritance — Weismann's  statement. 

CHAPTER   IV. 
BASIS  OF  INVESTIGATION,  Continued .74 

Origin  of  great  men: — Sons  of  prominent  men — Re- 
lated to  inferior  men — Cromwell. 

Use  and  Disuse: — Biological  meaning — Average  use — 
Normal  use  —  Amount  of  use  per  ancestor  —  Functional 
activity  and  time  as  the  factors  of  use — Physical  maturity 
— Physical  training — Physical  disuse — Growth  of  brain — 
Diagram,  Fig.  2 — Growth  of  functional  capacity  extends 
beyond  physical  growth — Mental  capacity  at  different  ages 
• — Hypothetical  community— Diagram  of  body  and  brain 
capacity,  Fig.  3 — Formula  for  inheritance — Recapitulation 
of  second  deduction  from  use-inheritance. 

CHAPTER   V. 
STANDARD  OF  COMPARISON 83 

Hall  of  Fame :  —  Men  chosen  —  Why  especially  ex- 
amined. 

Formation  of  Standard  Scale: — Tabulation  from  a 
genealogy — Divisions  of  the  scale,  Table  i — Extremes — 
Birth-ranks — Sub-divisions  of  extremes  of  the  scale. 

Scale  Compared: — Records  from  Ireland,  Scotland  and 


8  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Scandinavia— Tables  II,  III  and  IV— Age  of  Reproduction 
at  different  periods — Law  of  probabilities — Fame  not  com- 
mensurate with  mental  ability. 

CHAPTER  VI. 
HALL  OF  FAME  MEN 93 

Ancestry  of  Beecher. — Diagram  for  Beecher,  Fig.  4 — 
Ancestry  of  twenty-five  men,  Table  V  —  Birth-ranks  of 
twenty-five  men,  Fig.  5  —  Fig  6  and  its  explanation  — 
College  educated  ancestors. 

Special  cases : — Webster — Edwards — Gray — Whitney — 
Franklin — Audubon  — Farragut —  Irving —  Lee — Washington 
— Lincoln — Channing — Marshall — Longfellow. 

General  Discussion: — Average  birth-ranks  for  the 
group — Average  ancestral  birth-rank,  Table  VI — Fig.  7 — 
Rearrangement,  Table  VII — Extreme  groups. 

CHAPTER   VII. 
GREAT  MEN  OF  ANCIENT  TIMES 116 

Method  of  Procedure  and  Estimating: — Unknown 
dates — Collateral  evidence — De  Jussieu  family — Approxi- 
mating birth-ranks — Estimating  for  different  members  of  a 
family. 

Biblical  characters : — Joseph — Moses — David — Solomon 
— Rehoboam. 

Religious  reformers: — Confucius — Lao-tse — Buddha — 
Mohammed. 

Ancient  Greece: — Laws  of  Lycurgus — Age  of  marriage 
in  Athens — Alexander — Philip  of  Macedon — Aristotle — 
Alcibiades— Pericles— Kings  of  Sparta— Ptolemy  Phila- 
delphus. 

Rome:—Au£istus— Caesar  and  Caesarion— Scipio  Afri- 
canus  —  Sulla  —  Cato  —  Pliny  —  The  Grecchi  —  Claudius- 
Seneca. 


CONTENTS.  9 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

PAGE 

GREAT  MEN  OF  MODERN  HISTORY 133 

Scope  of  Inquiry: — Number  wanted — Who  omitted — 
Reasons  for  discrimination. 

Great  Britain:  —  Alfred  the  Great  —  Bacon  —  Shake- 
speare— The  Herschels — The  Darwins — Fig.  8.  Hunter — 
Pitt— Cromwell. 

Europe: — Cnvier — Lamarck — Humboldt — Napoleon. 

CHAPTER   IX. 
GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  WORLD 142 

The  number  of  men  included — Classification — Tables 
VIII  to  XXI — Explanation  of  tables — Comparison  of  men 
in  different  tables  —  Quotation  from  Prof.  Lombroso  — 
Comparison  by  numbers,  Fig.  9 — Men  whose  birth-ranks 
are  partially  or  wholly  unknown — Impossibility  of  equal- 
izing tables — Ten  men  from  ten  countries — Evidence  from 
one  man  alone. 

CHAPTER    X. 
MENTAL  APTITUDES   164 

Hypothetical  life  history  of  man — Relation  of  mental  ap- 
titude to  birth-rank — Sample  groups — Discussion  of  groups 
— Tabulation  by  birth-ranks  and  mental  aptitudes — Exam- 
ination of  apparent  exceptions — Custom  reversing  natural 
aptitudes  —  Generals  Lee  and  Grant  —  Channing,  Cotton, 
Mather,  Locke — Eight  poets  compared  as  to  character,  and 
also  as  to  mental  ability — Goethe,  Pope  and  Schiller. 

CHAPTER   XL 
EMINENT  FAMILIES 178 

Gallon's  analysis — Opportunities  of  sons  of  prominent 
families — Supposed  reason  why  they  do  not  become  eminent 
—  The  Bach  family  —  The  Carpzov  family  —  The  Carnot 


IO  CONTENTS. 

PAGK 

family— The  Bernouilli  family— The  Coligny  family— The 
Livingston  family — The  Dana  family — The  Bliss  family — 
The  college  graduate — Other  American  families — The 
Conde  family — Eminence  continued  through  younger 
branches — Eminent  men  and  their  sons — Cromwell — Eng- 
lish aristocracy — Why  descendants  of  men  raised  to  peerage 
do  not  maintain  eminence — Burke's  peerage — Primogeni- 
ture— Difference  between  brothers — Result  of  one  genera- 
tion versus  results  of  several  generations. 

CHAPTER   XII. 
RACES  OF  MEN 194 

The  plea  for  early  marriages — Galton's  table  of  relative 
births  in  the  same  family  —  Marrying  ages  of  different 
classes — Early  reproduction  and  advantageous  variation — 
The  Eskimos — The  Digger  Indians — The  Fuegians — The 
Patagonians  —  Andaman  Islanders  —  The  Bushmen  —  The 
Hottentots — The  Australians — The  M'pongwes  and  Bor- 
mus  —  The  Moxos  and  Chiquitos  —  The  Acawoias  —  The 
Polynesians  —  The  Egyptians  —  The  Aboriginal  Tribes  of 
India — The  Touaregs  and  Kabyles — The  Afghans — The 
Chinese — Review  of  the  Different  Tribes — Results  com- 
pared with  Lamarck's  laws. 

CHAPTER   XIII. 
DEGENERACY 206 

Degeneracy  defined — Experiments  on  rabbits — Degen- 
erate children  of  parents  who  have  suffered  from  sunstroke, 
sickness  or  accident — Degenerate  children  of  old  parents — 
Healthy  and  unhealthy  development  of  parents — Children 
of  an  old  mother — The  "Ishmael"  family,  their  character 
and  their  birth-ranks — The  "Juke"  family — Dugdale's  con- 
clusions— Crime  and  pauperism — Genesis  of  degeneracy — 
Sexual  intensity. 


CONTENTS.  1 1 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

PAGE 

LOWER  ANIMALS   217 

Basis  of  comparison  —  Size  and  activity  of  different 
animals — Anthropoid  apes :  The  orang-utan  and  chim- 
panzee— Horses  :  English  thoroughbreds — American  trotters 
— Testimony  of  horse  breeders — Breeding  from  immature 
animals — The  fastest  trotters  in  the  world — The  greatest 
sires  of  speed — Transmission  by  sex  in  horses — Relation 
of  age  and  training  in  sires — Reproduction  earlier  in 
common  than  in  blooded  horses — Cattle:  Early  breeding 
— Birth-ranks  of  famous  bulls — Average  for  ordinary 
cattle — Dogs  and  sheep — Rabbits  and  squirrels— ^Hibernat- 
ing squirrels — The  beaver — Seals  and  deer — The  elephant 
and  hippopotamus — Guinea  pigs— White  njice — Common 
fowl — Crows — Parrots — Bee — Moth — Coccus — Ant. 

CHAPTER    XV. 
REPRODUCTION,  PUBERTY  AND  LONGEVITY 232 

Lamarck's  laws  and  their  proof — The  factors  of  use, 
how  combined — Diagram  of  animals  by  the  factor  of  age — 
Proportion  of  life  during  which  developing  activity  con- 
tinues— Relative  variations  of  time  and  activity — Time  a 
stimulus  for  mental  activity  —  The  rise  of  races  —  Time 
between  generations  increased  by  delay  of  puberty  — 
Puberty  affected  by  climate  and  mode  of  life — Age  of 
puberty  at  different  places  —  Variations  by  latitude  — 
Adolescence  a  period  of  acute  sexuality — Early  puberty 
caused  by  congenital  acute  sexuality  —  Degenerate  and 
luxurious  classes  come  early  to  puberty — Early  reproduc- 
tion and  length  of  life — Length  of  life  of  different  classes 
— Longevity  and  mental  aptitudes — Relation  of  birth- 
rank  to  longevity  —  Selection  eliminated  —  Longevity  of 
different  sons  of  the  same  family — Longevity  and  birth- 
ranks  of  brothers  and  sisters  —  Birtht-ranks  and  ex- 


12  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

pectancy — Infant  mortality — Puberty  delayed  by  late  re- 
production— Result  of  delayed  puberty — Races  compared 
as  to  puberty.  Practical  considerations. 

CHAPTER   XVI. 
EFFECT  OF  SEXUAL  REPRODUCTION ^ 247 

Reproduction  as  temporary  disuse:  —  Functional  ac- 
tivity accompanied  by  waste  and  repair.  Degrees  of  waste 
and  repair — Functional  condition  due  to  rate  of  repair — 
Germ  cell  the  epitome  of  the  adult — Divisions  of  germ  cells 
equivalent  to  a  condition  of  waste — Repair  of  wasted  germ 
cells — Functional  condition  of  germ  cells  and  quality  of 
repair — Habit  of  repairing  organs — Cessation  of  cell  divi- 
sions and  repair  is  disuse — Development  and  the  length  of 
time  between  periods  of  disuse. 

Immaturity: — Sexual  excesses  and  rapid  cell  divisions 
— Immature  seeds — Immature  germ  cells  and  weak  children 
—Offspring  of  parents  who  are  still  growing— Brain  power 
vs.  brain  size — The  Incas. 

Inheritance  at  certain  ages: — Active  and  inert  organs 
differently  affected — Initial  velocity  of  development — Per- 
sistence of  a  single  advance  or  retrogression. 

Inheritance  by  sex: — Relates  to  characters  appearing 
after  puberty  —  Secondary  sexual  character  of  late  brain 
development — Transference  of  sexually  developed  charac- 
ters to  the  opposite  sex — Due  to  initial  velocity — From 
grandparent  of  one  sex  to  grandchild  of  the  opposite  sex. 

Examples  from  Horses. 

CHAPTER   XVII. 

MENTAL  AND  PHYSICAL  RESULTS 257 

Secondary  sexual  characters  and  intelligence: — On- 
togeny of  parent  and  offspring— Functionally  active  and 
functionally  inert  characters — Relation  of  the  beard  and 


CONTENTS.  13 

PAGE 

mental  powers  to  age  at  reproduction — Reproduction  by 
immature  fathers — Illustrations  from  various  animals. 

Relation  of  Mental  Power  to  Mental  Aptitude: — Power 
is  the  product  of  long-continued  conditions — Aptitude  is 
a  selected  part  of  these  conditions — Mental  power  is  the 
basis,  and  mental  aptitude  the  characteristic  of  eminence — 
Mental  power  transmitted  to  the  same  sex,  mental  aptitude 
to  either  sex — Illustrations. 

Sterility: — Natural  and  acquired  sterility — Causes  of 
natural  sterility — Premeditated  sterility  and  its  remedy — 
Increase  of  population — The  cycle  of  actions — The  domin- 
ating race  of  the  future. 

Conclusion: — Evolution  and  degeneracy  —  Power  of 
controlling  them — Results  to  be  reached — Closing  remarks. 

APPENDIX 273 


INTRODUCTION. 


"The  Lord  gave  and  the  Lord  hath  taken  away/'  In  such  words 
man  has  been  wont  to  blame  Providence  for  the  consequences  of  his 
own  errors  and  ignorance.  Happily  this  ignorance  is  being  grad- 
ually brushed  away  and  man  is  learning  little  by  little  that  there 
are  some  ills  for  which  he  himself  is  responsible.  If  there  is  one 
thing  more  than  another  which  we  have  been  in  the  habit  of  charg- 
ing up  against  Providence  it  is  the  results  of  vicious  or  defective 
heredity,  yet  instead  of  being  a  mysterious  dispensation  of  Provi- 
dence, heredity  is  the  product  of  natural  laws  operating  along  certain 
prescribed  lines.  Instead  of  having  a  science  of  heredity  our 
knowledge  of  the  subject  has  consisted  of  a  series  of  disconnected 
facts  wholly  inadequate  to  give  us  an  intelligent  idea  of  the  processes 
of  Nature.  We  have  known  that  the  children  of  white  parents 
are  white  and  that  the  children  of  colored  parents  are  colored,  but 
we  have  known  little  else.  Laying  the  blame  for  disastrous  results 
upon  the  shoulders  of  Providence  is  but  one  way  of  confessing 
this  ignorance. 

KINDS    OF    HEREDITY. 

Heredity  is  of  two  kinds;  first,  Structural  Heredity,  which  re-  ' 
lates  to  the  size,  form  and  color  of  an  organ  without  regard  to  the 
force  or  energy  that  may  reside  in  it ;  and  second,  Dynamical  Her-  - 
edity,  which  relates  to  the  force,  power  or  energy  of  an  organ 
without  regard  to  its  size  or  form. 

Heretofore  attention  has  been  principally  directed  to  structural 
heredity,  and  examples  of  the  known  facts  and  the  theories  relating 

17 


l8  INTRODUCTION. 

to  them  are  given  as  a  preliminary  to  the  main  work.  This  main 
work  consists  in  tracing  the  genesis  of  dynamic  heredity,  and  the 
facts  revealed  by  this  investigation  give  us  a  better  understanding 
of  the  processes  by  which  character  is  produced. 

THE   GREAT    FACTS    OF    HEREDITY. 

In  considering  the  dynamical  side  of  this  question,  the  first 
and  most  important  fact  is  that  heredity  is  the  product  of  two  fac- 
tors, one  of  which  is  the  length  of  time  elapsing  between  genera- 
tions, and  the  other  of  which,  is  the  degree  of  activity  which  char- 
acterizes the  individuals  of  successive  generations.  These  two 
factors  bear  the  same  relationship  to  heredity  that  length  and 
breadth  bear  to  area.  No  matter  how  great  the  length  may  be  we 
cannot  have  great  area  if  the  breadth  is  small,  and  no  matter  how 
great  the  breadth,  the  area  will  still  remain  small  if  the  length  is 
small.  In  the  same  way  we  cannot  have  a  high  degree  of  hereditary 
development  by  time  alone,  nor  by  activity  alone.  To  produce  great 
development  by  hereditary  action,  both  factors  must  be  large  in 
the  parents,  and  to  produce  very  great  development  both  factors 
must  be  large  for  two  or  more  generations. 

The  second  great  fact  is  that  each  individual  during  his  life 
undergoes  certain  physical  and  mental  changes,  and  that  those  con- 
ditions which  characterize  parents  at  different  ages  are  transmitted 
to  the  offspring  which  are  produced  at  those  ages.  This  is  admira- 
bly exemplified  in  mental  aptitudes, — the  children  of  youthful 
parents  being  strongly  marked  by  the  characteristics  of  youth,  and 
the  children  of  old  parents  being  marked  by  the  characteristics 
of  age. 

The  third  great  fact  is  that  the  average  length  of  life  tends  to 
approximate  twice  the  average  age  at  which  reproduction  takes 


INTRODUCTION.  19 

place.  This  is  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  as  long  as  parents  main- 
tain their  health  and  vigor,  the  older  they  are  at  the  time  of  repro- 
duction, the  greater  is  the  average  length  of  life  of  their  offspring. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  recount  here  all  of  the  facts  set  forth 
nor  the  corollaries  to  be  drawn  from  them,  but  we  will  turn  our 
attention  to  some  of  the  processes  by  which  the  race  has  risen  to 
its  present  plane,  and  to  some  of  the  processes  by  which  it  may  be 
raised  to  still  higher  planes. 

INFLUENCES   AFFECTING    HEREDITY. 

In  the  early  history  of  the  race  men  grouped  themselves  into 
communities,  and  not  having  to  fight  for  their  lives  against  superior 
animals  they  perfected  military  organizations  for  the  purpose  of 
fighting  each  other.  The  young  men  joined  these  organizations, 
and  the  training  they  necessarily  received  developed  them  phys- 
ically and  mentally.  In  communities  like  Greece  and  Rome  it 
became  customary  for  young  men  not  to  marry  until  after  they  had 
returned  from  the  wars.  Wars  and  the  training  for  wars,  there- 
fore, not  only  increased  the  activity  of  the  individuals,  but  operated 
to  delay  reproduction  until  considerable  development  had  occurred. 
The  result  of  this  we  see  in  the  fact  that  the  most  warlike  races 
have  been  the  most  progressive  races.  In  modern  times  the  mili- 
tary training  given  by  Germany  not  only  develops  her  young  men, 
but  operates  to  delay  the  average  age  of  marriage,  and  consequently 
the  average  age  at  which  reproduction  takes  place.  The  result  of 
this  will  be  a  rise  in  the  average  intelligence  of  the  German  people. 

Religious  movements,  from  that  of  Moses  down  to  that  of  the 
pestiferous  charlatan  who  claims  to  be  a  re-incarnation,  have  each 
added  to  the  intellectual  activity  of  the  community  and  consequently 
have  been  factors  in  human  progress.  The  same  may  be  said  of 


2O  INTRODUCTION. 

agitations  of  the  present  day, — strikes,  anarchism,  the  stress  of 
competition,  athletics, — all  tend  to  increase  the  physical  or  mental 
activity  of  individuals  and  hence  to  develop  the  race  generation  by 
generation. 

RESULTS    OF    EARLY    MARRIAGES. 

Even  in  communities  in  which  there  are  many  things  operating 
to  delay  the  age  of  marriage,  there  are  individuals  who  marry 
early  and  who  early  in  their  lives  produce  children.  These  children 
of  youthful  parents  are  lacking  in  physical  stamina  and  mental 
power.  They  are  reckless,  careless,  sometimes  vicious  and  fre- 
quently drift  into  drunkenness  and  crime.  From  this  class  comes 
the  principal  part  of  our  criminals,  paupers  and  prostitutes.  The 
effects  of  debauchery  result  in  defective  children,  and  if  continued 
for  two  or  three  generations  result  in  a  high  degree  of  infant 
mortality  or  total  extinction.  The  vices  of  civilized  society,  espe- 
cially strong  drink  and  prostitution,  operate  to  eliminate  a  portion 
of  each  generation,  and  this  elimination  affects  the  children  of 
young  parents  much  more  than  the  children  of  old  or  middle  aged 
parents. 

THE    MISTAKES    OF    GOOD    INTENTIONS. 

There  are  certain  persons  with  good  intentions,  but  sadly  mis- 
taken, who  would  protect  society  against  itself  by  prohibition,  by 
the  abolition  of  war,  strikes,  and  competition,  and  by  legal  enact- 
ments calculated  to  preserve  the  life  of  each  individual  born.  Let 
us  go  back  a  thousand  years  in  time  and  assume  that  this  Utopian 
condition  had  been  brought  into  existence.  There  being  no  mili- 
tary necessities  to  take  the  youth  to  war  and  no  stress  of  competition 
making  it  difficult  to  secure  a  living,  the  number  of  early  marriages 
would  have  been  greatly  increased  and  the  children  of  young  parents 
would  have  outnumbered  the  children  of  middle  aged  parents.  Now 


INTRODUCTION.  21 

one  of  the  effects  of  early  reproduction  is  to  endow  children  with 
intense  sexual  characteristics,  and  this  results  in  the  childrii  of 
young  parents  being  much  more  prolific  than  children  of  older 
parents.  A  few  generations  of  this  process,  and  the  whole  popula- 
tion would  either  have  been  children  of  young  parents  or  descended 
from  the  children  of  young  parents.  Under  these  conditions  the 
race  would  have  sunk  downward  instead  of  rising  upward,  and 
the  white  man  of  to-day  would  have  been  at  the  level  of  the  savage. 
Hence,  rum,  war,  intrigue  for  power,  competition,  prostitution,  and 
a  large  number  of  other  vices  considered  the  curses  of  civilization 
have  in  reality  been  the  unconscious  causes  of  progress. 

REMOVING   THE    CURSES   OF    CIVILIZATION. 

While  these  curses  could  not  heretofore  have  been  dispensed 
with  without  causing  the  destruction  of  civilization,  now  that  we 
know  the  real  cause  of  progress  we  can  eliminate  them  and  still 
progress  faster  than  before.  It  being  known  that  it  is  desirable 
to  eliminate,  or  at  least  restrict,  the  early  production  of  children, 
it  is  not  necessary  that  we  reach  the  desired  end  by  first  producing 
them  and  then  laying  traps  by  which  they  will  exterminate  them- 
selves through  misery  and  suffering.  If  we  are  determined  to 
continue  the  production  of  children  from  immature  parents,  it  cer- 
tainly would  be  more  humane  to  follow  the  ancient  Polynesian 
custom  of  infanticide.  Think  of  it!  The  youth  to  whom  we  would 
not  intrust  the  training  of  a  dog  we  intrust  the  production  of  human 
beings,  and  then  wonder  at  the  causes  of  pauperism  and  crime. 

REGULATING    MARRIAGES. 

The  legal  age  at  which  marriage  may  be  contracted  varies  in 
different  parts  of  the  world  from  the  age  of  ten  to  the  age  of 
twenty.  In  different  parts  of  the  United  States  these  ages  range 


22  INTRODUCTION. 

from  fourteen  to  eighteen.  As  a  beginning  toward  a  higher  stand- 
ard, all  marriages  of  men  at  less  than  twenty-one  and  of  women  at 
less  than  eighteen  should  be  absolutely  prohibited.  To  this  should 
be  added  a  graded  marriage  license  fee  so  arranged  as  to  discrim- 
inate against  all  marriages  of  men  at  less  than  twenty-five  and  of 
women  at  less  than  twenty-two.  The  existence  of  such  a  discrim- 
ination would  be  the  most  potent  of  influences  in  discouraging  early 
reproduction  by  calling  attention  to  the  causes  of  mental  degen- 
eracy. The  moral  influence  would  be  greater  than  the  legal 
restraint. 

With  very  early  reproduction  restricted  to  a  few  illegitimacies, 
two  generations  would  see  our  pauper  and  criminal  classes  practi- 
cally extinct.  The  vices  of  intemperance  and  prostitution  would 
also  disappear  much  more  rapidly  than  they  would  as  the  result 
of  legal  enactments,  because  these  vices  are  practiced  more  by  the 
children  of  young  parents  than  by  the  children  of  old  parents.  This 
is  particularly  true  in  cases  where  early  reproduction  is  continued 
for  two  or  three  generations. 

It  may  be  argued  that  the  restriction  of  early  marriages  would 
cause  an  increase  of  prostitution.  It  is  possible,  nay  probable,  that 
this  would  be  the  immediate  result  of  such  restriction,  but  this 
increase  would  be  quickly  followed  by  a  much  greater  decrease  as 
the  children  of  older  parents  became  more  numerous.  It  may  also 
be  argued  that  the  birth  rate  is  now  decreasing  and  that  a  restric- 
tion of  early  marriages  would  cause  a  further  decrease  amounting 
to  a  decrease  in  population.  A  remedy  for  such  possible  decrease 
is  given  in  the  chapter  on  sterility. 

MODERN    CONDITIONS    AND    REQUIREMENTS. 

According  to  the  census  of  1900,  each  child  receives  an  average 
of  4.45  years  of  school  education.  This  is  about  twice  the  amount 


INTRODUCTION.  23 

received  by  the  children  of  1870.  This  is  good.  The  increase 
in  education  through  schools,  publications  and  the  increasing  com- 
plexity of  civilization  is  now  so  rapid  that  it  needs  little  or  no 
stimulus.  What  we  need  is  more  and  better  physical  development 
and  an  increase  in  the  average  age  at  which  reproduction  takes 
place.  One  year  added  to  the  average  age  of  reproduction  is,  as 
far  as  the  succeeding  generations  are  concerned,  nearly  equal  to 
one  year  added  to  school  education,  and  in  some  respects  it  is  much 
more  important.  Each  year  added  to  the  average  age  of  repro- 
duction will,  in  a  few  generations,  add  two  years  to  the  average 
length  of  useful  life,  but  the  race  cannot  support  these  added  years 
if  the  physical  development  is  sacrificed  to  the  mental.  Healthy 
development  is  a  gradual  process,  hot  house  development  is  un- 
healthy. We  have  gymnasiums,  athletic  clubs  and  physical  culture 
publications.  These  are  good,  but  we  should  add  to  them  sys- 
tematic and  scientific  physical  training  for  our  children.  We  should 
add  to  the  curricula  of  our  schools  a  regular  course  of  physical 
instruction  under  competent  instructors.  These  should  aim  at,  not 
the  production  of  athletes,  but  the  production  of  sound  and  healthy 
bodies.  If  this  be  done  regularly  and  systematically,  then  the 
average  age  of  reproduction  may  be  advanced  from  generation  to 
generation  and  man  may  yet  live  as  many  hundreds  of  years  as  he 
now  lives  scores  of  years. 


CONTROL    OF    HEREDITY. 


CHAPTER   I. 
INHERITANCE,    VARIATION   AND   SELECTION. 

If  two  acorns  be  planted  they  will  sprout  into  plants  which  wilt 
in  due  time  grow  to  be  two  oak  trees.  The  manner  of  growth  in 
both  will  be  the  same.  Each  will  increase  its  diameter  by  adding 
external  layers  of  wood;  each  will  have  its  trunk  knotted  and 
gnarled  in  the  manner  peculiar  to  oak  trees ;  and  from  the  trunk  of 
each  will  grow  branches  having  like  characteristics.  From  the 
trunks  and  branches  will  grow  crooked  and  twisted  twigs  which 
will  bear  those  distinctively  shaped  leaves  known  as  oak  leaves 
and  other  acorns  like  those  from  which  the  tree  originally  came. 

PECULIAR  DIFFERENCES   IN    TREES. 

While  each  of  these  trees  is  unmistakably  an  oak,  the  two  will 
differ  from  each  other  in  many  particulars.  One  will  lean  to  the 
right,  the  other  to  the  left.  Where  one  tree  will  have  a  single 
large  branch  growing  from  the  trunk  and  smaller  branches  spaced 
irregularly  about  or  above  it,  the  other  will  have  two  or  more 
medium-sized  branches  with  smaller  branches  differently  spaced 
and  of  different  diameters.  In  fact,  if  the  two  trees  be  accurately 
compared  with  each  other  it  will  be  found  that  they  are  not  exactly 
alike  in  any  particular,  and  this  will  be  true  whether  the  two  origi- 
nal acorns  came  from  the  same  tree  or  from  different  trees  of  the 
same  species.  Yet  in  spite  of  these  differences  there  will  not  be 

25 


26  INHERITANCE,   VARIATION    AND   SELECTION. 

the  slightest  doubt  about  the  two  trees  being  oak  trees,  and  a 
botanist  will  instantly  tell  us  to  which  species  they  belong  of  the 
two  or  three  hundred  into  which  oaks  are  divided.  If  we  take  other 
acorns  from  these  two  trees,  and  from1  them  raise  other  oak  trees, 
they  in  their  turn  will  have  the  same  points  of  similarity  and  differ- 
ence which  have  just  been  noted. 

HEREDITY    AND   VARIATION. 

This  difference  in  identity  exists  in  every  species  of  plants  and 
animals,  and  illustrates  both  the  laws  of  heredity  and  the  phe- 
nomena of  variation,  though  it  explains  neither.  The  laws  of 
heredity  declare  that  the  offspring  are  and  will  be  the  same  as 
the  parent,  while  the  facts  of  variation  teach  us  that  accompanying 
this  likeness  there  is  an  unlikeness.  From  common  observation 
we  are  led  to  expect  that-  the  children  of  negro  parents  will  be 
born  with  dark  skins  and  curly  hair;  that  the  Chinese  child  will 
have  slant  eyes  and  the  peculiar  traits  of  Mongolian  people;  and 
that  the  child  of  white  parents  will  have  those  peculiarities  that 
characterize  the  white  race.  Going  further  we  can  distinguish 
different  branches  of  the  white  race,  and  can  tell  the  children  of 
German,  Irish  or  Italian  parents  from  each  other.  Even  within 
these  branches  we  can  often  recognize  brothers  and  sisters  and 
know  them  to  be  children  of  particular  parents. 

That  a  son  looks  like  his  father  or  mother  has  become  so  familiar 
to  us  that  we  are  surprised  when  he  does  not,  yet  few  persons  who 
have  not  given  the  matter  special  attention  are  fully  aware  of  the 
power  of  the  laws  of  heredity  and  the  persistency  with  which  par- 
ticular characters  are  transmitted  from  generation  to  generation. 
Many  examples  have  been  given  by  writers  on  the  subject  of 
heredity,  but  it  is  intended  to  give  here  only  enough  to  illustrate 


INHERITANCE,   VARIATION    AND   SELECTION.  27 

certain  well  known  laws  which  will  be  more  or  less  involved  in  the 
subsequent  discussion. 

EXAMPLES   OF    INHERITANCE. 

Dr.  Anderson  gives  the  case  of  a  bitch  that  was  born  with 
three  legs.  "She  has  had  several  litters  of  puppies,  and  among 
these  several  individuals  were  produced  that  had  the  same  defect 
as  herself."1 

Mr.  Day2  gives  the  case  of  a  mare,  "Basto",  that  had  ten  foals 
between  1721  and  1739,  one  of  which  was  "Crab",  by  Alcock's 
"Gray  Arabian."  A  granddaughter  of  Crab  (great-granddaughter 
of  Gray  Arabian)  had  fourteen  foals,  six  being  gray  and  eight 
being  bays  or  browns.  One  of  these  six  grays  had  a  gray  foal 
which  in  turn  had  ten  gray  foals  by  six  different  stallions.  One 
of  the  ten  had  a  gray  foal  born  more  than  a  century  after  the 
first  birth.  As  this  relates  to  English  thoroughbred  horses,  which 
are  rarely  of  a  gray  color,  the  persistency  of  a  single  infusion  of 
blood  from  a  gray  stallion  is  quite  remarkable. 

In  1770  tiiere  was  born  in  Paraguay  a  hornless  bull  which 
became  the  progenitor  of  a  race  of  hornless  cattle  that  has  multi- 
plied extensively  in  that  country.3 

ABNORMAL   FINGERS   AND   TOES. 

Huxley4  gives  the  case  of  Gratio  Kelleia,  the  Maltese,  who  was 
born  with  six  fingers  on  each  hand  and  a  like  number  of  toes  on 
each  foot.  He  had  four  children,  Salvator,  who  had  six  fingers 
and  toes  like  his  father ;  George,  who  had  five  each,  but  with  one 


(1)  Recreations  in  Agriculture,  Vol.  I,  p.  68. 

(2)  The  Horse,  p.  146. 

(3)  Cyclopaedia  of  Anatomy  and  Physiology,  Vol.  IV,  p.  1311. 

(4)  The  Origin  of  Species,  p.  92. 


28  INHERITANCE,   VARIATION    AND    SELECTION. 

toe  deformed;  Andre,  whose  ringers  and  toes  were  quite  perfect, 
like  those  of  his  mother;  and  Marie,  who  had  five  each,  but  with 
her  thumbs  deformed.  Salvator,  who  married  a  five-fingered  and 
five-toed  woman,  had  four  children,  three  of  whom  had  six  fingers 
and  six  toes.  George  had  four  children,  two  of  whom  had  six 
fingers  and  six  toes,  and  one  of  whom  had  six  fingers  on  one  hand. 
Andre's  children  were  all  normal,  but  Marie,  who  had  no  defect 
except  deformed  thumbs  and  who  married  a  normal  man,  had  one 
child  with  six  toes. 

In  the  Colburn  family,  a  woman  having  six  fingers  transmitted 
the  deformity  to  her  children,  grandchildren,  and  great-grandchil- 
dren. Among  her  great-great-grandchildren,  four  out  of  eight 
also  had  six  fingers  on  each  hand. 

Dr.  Lepine  reports  the  case  of  a  man  who  had  only  three  fin- 
gers on  each  hand,  and  four  toes  on  each  foot.  His  grandfather 
and  his  son  had  the  same  deformity.5 

Adrian  de  Jussieu  gives  the  case  of  a  woman  with  three  nipples. 
"The  additional  nipple  was  placed  in  the  groin,  and  served  ordi- 
narily for  suckling,  while  in  the  mother  of  this  woman,  who  was 
also  born  with  three  nipples,  they  were  all  placed  on  the  anterior 
region  of  the  thorax."6 

Darwin  gives,7  on  the  authority  of  Candole,  a  curious  instance 
of  inheritance  of  the  power  of  moving  the  scalp.  A  man  could,  as 
a  youth,  pitch  several  heavy  books  from  his  head  by  the  scalp  alone ; 
and  won  wagers  by  performing  this  feat.  His  father,  uncle,  grand- 
father, and  all  his  three  children  possessed  the  same  power  in  the 
same  unusual  degree.  Eight  generations  previously  the  family 


(5)  Stock  Breeding,  p.  51. 

(6)  British  and  Foreign  Medico-Chirurgical  Review,  April,  1863,  P-  460. 

(7)  Descent  of  Man,  Vol.  I,  19. 


INHERITANCE,,   VARIATION    AND   SELECTION.  2Q 

became  divided  into  two  branches,  so  that  the  head  of  the  contem- 
porary generation  was  removed  from  this  man  in  the  seventh  de- 
gree. This  distant  cousin  lived  in  a  different  part  of  France,  and 
being  asked  if  he  possessed  the  same  power,  immediately  gave  an 
exhibition  of  it. 

BLUSHING. 

Darwin  also  gives8  the  case  of  a  family  consisting  of  a  father, 
mother,  and  three  children,  all  of  whom,  without  exception,  were 
prone  to  blush  to  a  most  painful  degree.  Some  of  them  were  sent 
to  travel  in  order  to  wear  away  this  diseased  sensibility,  but  noth- 
ing was  of  the  slightest  avail. 

Sir  James  Paget,9  while  examining  the  spine  of  a  girl,  was 
struck  by  her  singular  manner  of  blushing;  a  big  splash  appeared 
first  on  one  cheek,  and  then  other  splashes,  variously  scattered  over 
the  face  and  neck.  He  subsequently  asked  the  mother  if  her  daughr 
ter  always  blushed  in  this  peculiar  manner  and  was  answered, 
"Yes,  she  takes  after  me/'  Sir  J.  Paget  then  perceived  that  by 
asking  this  question  he  had  caused  the  mother  to  blush;  and  she 
exhibited  the  same  peculiarity  as  her  daughter. 

Girou  mentions  a  family  in  which  the  father,  the  children  and 
most  of  the  grandchildren  were  left-handed.10 

It  will  be  observed  that  while  the  first  seven  of  these  examples 
relate  to  organs,  their  number,  color  and  form,  the  last  three  relate 
not  so  much  to  the  organs  themselves  as  to  the  inheritance  of  unus- 
ual functions  of  those  organs.  We  thus  see  that  peculiarities  of 
function  of  organs  may  be  inherited  as  well  as  the  organs  them- 
selves, and  that  differences  in  kind  of  function,  or  amount  of  func- 


(8)  Expressions  of  the  Emotions,  p.  312. 

(9)  Ibid. 

(10)     Animals  and  Plants  Under  Domestication,  Vol.  II,  p.  15. 


30  INHERITANCE,  VARIATION   AND  SELECTION. 

tional  capacity,  does  not  necessarily  involve  noticeable  differences 
in  the  organs  to  which  these  functions  belong.  For  example,  in 
the  case  of  the  Frenchman  who  possessed  the  power  of  moving  his 
scalp,  we  are  not  informed  that  there  was  any  unusual  develop- 
ment of  this  part  of  the  anatomy,  while,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  if 
there  had  been  a  development  of  the  scalp  muscle?,  at  all  propor- 
tional to  the  power  of  moving  them,  such  an  amazing  development 
would  certainly  have  been  commented  upon. 

TELEGONY. 

While  the  persistency  of  the  gray  color  in  the  descendants  of 
the  thoroughbred  mare  Basto  illustrates  how  a  single  infusion  of 
blood  will  continue  for  a  long  time,  it  does  not  illustrate  to  the 
fullest  extent  how  small  an  infusion  may  cause  an  appreciable  effect. 
For  some  reason,  not  yet  fully  understood,  a  mother  is  more  or 
less  affected  by  the  father  of  her  offspring,  and  often  to  an  extent 
that  will  mark  her  for  life  and  all  the  future  offspring  she  may 
have.  A  case  often  quoted,  and  sometimes  distorted,  is  that  of  a 
chestnut  mare  that  belonged  to  the  Earl  of  Morton.  In  1815  this 
mare  was  covered  by  a  quagga,  and  the  hybrid  produced  resem- 
bled the  sire  in  color  and  in  many  peculiarities  of  form.  In  1817, 
1818  and  1821  the  same  mare  was  covered  by  a  very  fine  black 
Arabian  horse, -and  produced  successively  three  foals.  Although 
she  had  not  seen  the  quagga  since  1816  each  of  the  three  foals 
bore  his  curious  and  unequivocal  markings.13 

"A  colt,  the  property  of  the  Earl  of  Suffield,  got  by  Laurel, 
so  resembled  another  horse  (Camel)  that  it  was  whispered,  nay, 
even  asserted,  at  Newmarket,  that  he  must  have  been  got 
by  Camel.  It  was  ascertained,  however,  that  the  only  relation 

(n)     First  published  in  the  "Philosophical  Transactions,"  1821,  p.  20. 


INHERITANCE,    VARIATION    AND   SELECTION.  3! 

which  the  colt  bore  to  Camel  was  that  the  latter  had  served  his 
mother  the  previous  season."12 

Miles  gives13  three  cases  of  mares  once  served  by  jacks  and 
producing  mules.  When  these  mares  were  subsequently  served 
by  pure-bred  stallions  they  produced  foals  resembling  mules. 

THOROUGHBRED    HORSES. 

Speaking  of  horses  in  general,  "Cecil,"  a  famous  breeder  of 
thoroughbreds,  says:  "It  is  curious  to  remark  that  when  a  thor- 
oughbred mare  has  once  had  foals  by  a  common  horse,  no  subse- 
quent foals  which  she  may  have  had  by  thoroughbred  horses  have 
ever  evinced  any  pretensions  to  racing  qualities.  There  may  be  an 
exception,  but  I  believe  I  am  correct  in  saying  that  there  is  not.  It 
is  laid  down  as  a  principle  That  when  a  pure-bred  animal  of  any 
breed  has  once  been  pregnant  by  one  of  a  different  breed,  she  is 
herself  a  cross  ever  after,  the  purity  of  her  blood  having  been  lost 
in  consequence  of  this  connection/  ' 

Mr.  Day  says14  that  since  Cecil's  time  there  has  been  only  one 
known  case  of  a  thoroughbred  mare  producing  a  winner  after  being 
covered  by  a  half-bred  horse.  If  this  be  true  for  a  horse  that  is 
one-half  thoroughbred,  what  must  be  the  case  when  the  stallion 
is  only  a  common  horse  with  no  thoroughbred  blood? 

Darwin  gives,15  on  the  authority  of  Dr.  Bower,  the  case  of  a 
black  hairless  Barbary  bitch  which  was  first  impregnated  by  a  mon- 
grel spaniel  with  long  brown  hair.  She  produced  five  puppies,  three 
of  which  were  hairless  and  two  of  which  were  covered  with  short 
brown  hair.  The  next  time  she  was  put  to  a  full-bred  black,  hair- 


Farmers' Magazine,  Vol.  XXXV,  p.  130. 

(13)  Stock  Breeding,  p.  257. 

(14)  The  Horse. 

(15)  Animals  and  Plants  Under  Domestication,  Vol.  II,  p.  3- 


32  INHERITANCE,  VARIATION    AND   SELECTION. 

less  Barbary  dog,  but  the  mischief  had  been  implanted  in  the  mother 
and  again  about  half  the  litter  looked  like  pure  Barbarys  and  the 
other  half  like  the  short-haired  progeny  of  the  first  father. 

McGillivray  gives16  the  case  of  a  polled  Angus  heifer  which 
bore  her  first  calf  to  a  short-horn  bull,  and  was  then  served  by  a 
black  polled  Angus  bull.  The  calf  from  the  last  connection  ap- 
proached the  short-horn  bull  in  color  and  form,  and  grew  horns. 

Dr.  Wells,  of  Grenada,  put  a  flock  of  white  ewes  to  a  choco- 
late-colored, hairy  ram,  and  the  following  year  to  a  white  ram  of 
their  own  breed.  The  lambs  got  by  the  last  connection  had  fleece 
more  or  less  of  a  chocolate  hue,  and  largely  mixed  with  hair.17 

Miles  also  gives18  a  number  of  cases  of  cows,  sheep,  pigs,  dogs, 
and  hens  which  were  similarly  affected  by  previous  impregnations. 

In  a  case  known  to  myself,  a  dark-haired  woman  had,  by  a 
red-haired  man,  an  illegitimate  son  who  had  red  hair  like  his 
father.  She  afterwards  married  a  dark-haired  man  and  had  by 
him  a  second  son  who  had  red  hair  like  the  first.  There  have  also 
been  reported  a  number  of  cases,  more  or  less  reliable  (or  unre- 
liable) of  white  women  who  bore  mulatto  children  and  subsequently 
bore  white  children  having  negro  characteristics. 

REVIEW    OF   TELEGONY. 

With  the  exception  of  Cecil's  remarks,  all  these  cases  appear 
to  refer  to  the  effect  of  the  first  impregnation,  though  I  know  of 
no  reason  why  they  should  not  apply  to  later  ones.  It  is  probably 
true,  however,  that  the  first  impregnation  would  be  more  likely 
to  influence  the  female  than  later  ones,  partly  because  she  is  younger 

(16)  Sanders,  "Horse  Breeding,"  p.  52. 

(17)  Ibid. 

(18)  Stock  Breeding,  pp.  258  to  263. 


INHERITANCE,    VARIATION    AND   SELECTION.  33 

and  more  easily  impressed,  and  partly  because  the  later  impregna- 
tions would  have  to  share  their  influence  with  the  previous  ones. 
While  the  majority  of  these  cases  refer  to  external  and  apparent 
characters,  those  relating  to  thoroughbred  horses  refer  to  functions, 
and  it  is  quite  evident  that  the  functions  of  organs  are  fully  as  liable 
to  be  influenced  in  this  manner  as  are  the  organs  themselves.  It 
is  also  quite  likely  that  widows  have  their  offspring  by  a  second 
marriage  influenced  in  the  same  way. 

Although  the  statements  relating  to  the  effects  of  previous 
impregnations  are  vouched  for  by  many  observers,  recent  inves- 
tigations have  thrown  doubt  on  the  whole  series  of  phenomena. 
The  trouble  is  no  one  seems  to  have  systematically  investigated  the 
subject,  and  many  of  the  so-called  facts,  especially  those  relating 
to  human  beings,  are  open  to  suspicion.  In  my  examination  of 
the  pedigrees  of  eminent  men  I  have  observed  what  appeared  to  be 
an  unusual  number  of  widows  who  married  a  second  time,  and  the 
children  of  those  second  marriages  appeared  as  progenitors.  This 
is  suggestive  but  not  demonstrative,  and  I  have  not  carried  out  an 
investigation  along  this  line  because  it  does  not  appear  that  the 
results  would  be  proof  of  anything. 

ATAVISM. 

Characters  which  are  ordinarily  transmitted  from  generation 
to  generation  sometimes  disappear  in  the  child  and  reappear  in 
the  grandchild,  the  great-grandchild,  or  even  some  more  remote 
descendant.  This  action  is  called  atavism  and  may  be  considered 
as  an  exception  rather  that  the  general  rule.  There  are,  however, 
a  good  many  cases  that  illustrate  this  particular  action. 

Darwin  mentions19  the  case  of  a  pointer  bitch  which  had  seven 


(19)     Animals  and  Plants  Under  Domestication,  Vol.  II,  p.  46. 


34  INHERITANCE,   VARIATION    AND   SELECTION. 

puppies.  Four  of  these  were  marked  with  blue  and  white,  which 
is  so  unusual  a  color  with  pointers  that  she  was  thought  to  have 
played  false  with  one  of  the  greyhounds  and  the  whole  litter  was 
condemned,  but  the  game-keeper  was  permitted  to  save  one  as  a 
curiosity.  Two  years  afterwards  a  friend  of  the  owner  saw  the 
young  dog  and  declared  that  he  was  the  image  of  his  old  pointer 
bitch  Sappho,  the  only  blue  and  white  pointer  of  pure  descent  which 
he  had  ever  seen.  This  led  to  a  close  inquiry  and  it  was  proved 
that  he  was  a  great-great-grandson  of  Sappho;  so,  that,  according 
to  the  common  expression,  he  had  only  one  sixteenth  of  her  blood 
in  his  veins. 

Mr.  Day  mentions20  the  case  of  a  fox-terrier  which  had  a  pecu- 
liarly graceful  action,  and  was  supposed  to  be  of  a  "perfectly  pure" 
breed.  Careful  inquiries  showed  that  a  remote  ancestor  had  been 
crossed  with  an  Italian  greyhound,  and  this  ancestor  had  trans- 
mitted his  graceful  movements  to  this  fox-terrier. 

Another  peculiar  case  is  given  by  Mr.  Darwin.21  A  cross  had 
been  made  between  a  setter  and  a  spaniel,  and  this  half-breed  was 
crossed  with  a  pure  setter.  After  several  successive  crosses  with 
pure  setters  a  male  was  produced  without  any  apparent  traces  of 
spaniel.  This  apparently  pure  setter  was  coupled  with  a  pure  setter 
female  and  produced  spaniels. 

Mr.  Darwin  also  gives22  the  case  of  a  breeder  who  once  crossed 
his  fowls  with  a  Malay  race  and  subsequently  wished  to  get  rid 
of  the  foreign  blood.  After  forty  years  of  effort  he  was  unsuccess- 
ful, as  some  fowls  showing  the  effect  of  the  Malay  cross  were 
continually  appearing. 


(20)  The  Horse. 

(21)  Animals  and  Plants. 

(22)  Ibid. 


INHERITANCE,   VARIATION    AND   SELECTION.  35 

In  a  litter  of  pigs  two  young  ones  appeared  with  the  marks  of 
the  Berkshire  that  had  been  used  as  a  cross  twenty-eight  years 
before.23 

A  man  who  had  a  double  tooth  in  place  of  one  incisor  inherited 
that  peculiarity  from  his  paternal  grandfather.  Another  man, 
healthy  in  every  particular,  but  the  son  of  a  lame  man,  had  children 
by  three  wives,  and  all  of  these  children  were  lame  like  their  grand- 
father.24 

PARTIAL   TRANSMISSION. 

A  very  common  occurrence  is  partial  transmission,  or  trans- 
mission to  part  of  the  offspring  and  not  to  all  of  them.  Several 
of  the  cases  previously  mentioned  come  under  this  head.  Helm 
mentions  one25  which  illustrates  it  very  well.  One  member  of  a 
family  had  the  second  and  third  toes  united,  and  this  anomaly 
was  transmitted  for  three  generations  to  one  person  only  in  each 
generation  out  of  an  average  of  eight  descendants  in  each  family. 

Napoleon  died  of  a  cancer,  a  disease  which  he  had  inherited 
from  his  father,  but  the  other  members  of  the  family  were  not 
afflicted  with  it. 

A  case  somewhat  different  but  more  marked  is  given  by  Qua- 
trefages.26  In  1803  or  I^O5>  M.  Decemet  discovered  in  his  garden 
at  Saint  Denis,  in  the  midst  of  a  bed  of  acacias  (Rubina  psudo- 
acacia)  an  individual  without  thorns  which  he  describes  under  the 
epithet  spectabilis.  It  is  to  the  multiplication  of  this  individual  by 
the  arts  of  the  gardener  that  all  the  thornless  acacias  now  distributed 
in  every  part  of  the  globe  owe  their  origin.  Now  these  individuals 


(23)  Animals  and  Plants  Under  Domestication,  Vol.  II,  p.  68. 

(24)  Miles,  Stock  Breeding,  p.  71. 

(25)  American  Roadsters,  p.  13. 

(26)  The  Human  Species,  p.  38. 


36  INHERITANCE,   VARIATION    AND   SELECTION. 

produce  seed,  but  if  the  seeds  are  sown  they  yield  only  thorny 
acacias. 

This  last  case  differs  from  the  others  in  that  the  thornless  char- 
acter of  the  acacias  appears  not  to  be  transmissible.  The  cases  of 
the  fox-terrier  which  had  a  graceful  action  and  the  grandchildren 
who  were  lame  like  the  grandfather  are  different  from  the  other 
cases  as  they  relate  to  functional  peculiarities  arising  from  the  in- 
heritance of  special  structure. 

INHERITANCE   BY    SEX. 

In  the  examples  of  inheritance  so  far  given,  characters  were 
transmitted  indifferently  to  any  of  the  offspring.  Another  kind 
of  inheritance  is  known  as  inheritance  by  sex.  In  this  class  come 
all  of  those  characters  which  are  not  connected  with  the  act  of 
reproduction,  but  which  are  transmitted  to  only  one  sex  and  are 
known  as  secondary  sexual  characters,  and  a  mass  of  cases  in  which 
the  transmission  is  to  both,  sexes  but  more  commonly  from  father 
to  son  and  from  mother  to  daughter  than  vice  versa.  Secondary 
sexual  characters  are  those  which  pertain  to  a  particular  sex,  as 
a  beard  on  a  man  and  side  feathers  on  the  tail  of  a  cock.  Although 
such  characters  are  not  transmitted  from  one  sex  to  the  other,  they 
are  transmitted  through  the  opposite  sex  to  later  generations  of  the 
same  sex.  Thus  the  beard  that  characterizes  a  man  will  be  trans- 
mitted to  the  son  of  that  man's  daughter,  though  the  daughter 
herself  show  not  a  trace  of  the  beard.  The  inheritance  of  second- 
ary sexual  characters  is  so  well  known  that  it  is  not  necessary  to 
dilate  upon  them.  What  is  necessary  to  show  is  that  many  char- 
acters, not  in  any  sense  sexual  characters,  tend  to  be  inherited  more 
by  the  sex  in  which  they  originated  than  by  the  opposite  sex. 


INHERITANCE,   VARIATION    AND   SELECTION.  37 

SEX   IN   TROTTING   HORSES. 

Among  American  trotters  the  mares  are  known  to  be  greater 
performers  than  the  stallions.  Helm27  ranks  Hambletonian  as 
the  first  of  the  great  stallions.  Hambletonian  was  not  a  trotting 
stallion  and  his  sire,  Abdallah,  was  neglected  and  discredited  during 
his  lifetime,  and  it  is  said  he  died  of  starvation.  In  looking  into 
the  ancestry  of  Hambletonian  I  find  that  he  was  descended  from 
a  line  of  trotting  mares,  and  his  record  is  one  of  a  sire  of  trotting 
mares.  Goldsmith  Maid  was  his  granddaughter,  and  she  had  at 
least  two  additional  trotting  mares  in  her  ancestry.  I  am  not  able  to 
find,  however,  that  her  ancestry  included  any  stallions  of  fame  ex- 
cept Hambletonian  and  Abdallah. 

Sedgwick  gives  the  case  of  a  sporting  dog,  the  issue  of  a  set- 
ter mother  and  a  spaniel  father,  with  a  setter  bitch,  and  the  male 
offspring  were  spaniels  like  the  paternal  grandfather,  while  the 
female  offspring  were  setters,  having  the  color  of  their  mother.28 

There  are  breeds  of  sheep  and  goats  in  which  the  horns  of  the 
males  differ  greatly  from  those  of  the  female.  These  differences, 
acquired  under  domestication,  are  regularly  transmitted  to  the 
same  sex.  With  cats  the  tortoise-shell  color  is  usually  transmitted 
to  the  female  only,  the  males  being  rusty  red.29  Gout  is  more  often 
transmitted  from  father  to  son  than  from  father  to  daughter.30 
Sanders31  states  that  he  knows  a  family  residing  in  Iowa  in  which 
the  mother  and  three  daughters  were  destitute  of  hair,  while  all 
of  the  sons  had  as  much  as  the  average  of  men. 


(27)  American  Roadsters,  p.  151. 

(28)  Quoted  by  Miles  in  "Stock  Breeding,"  p.  233. 

(29)  Descent  of  Man,  Vol.  I,  p.  273. 

(30)  Ibid.,  Vol.  I,  p.  283. 

(31)  Horse  Breeding,  p.  24. 


38  INHERITANCE;  VARIATION  AND  SELECTION. 

In  the  cases  of  insanity  Philips  gives,  from  117  insane  males, 
64  inherited  from  the  father  and  53  from  the  mother.  For  147 
insane  females,  80  inherited  from  the  mother  and  67  from  the 
father.  In  cases  of  consumption  recorded  by  Lugol,  of  106  con- 
sumptive males,  63  inherited  the  disease  from  the  father  and  43 
from  the  mother.  Of  108  consumptive  females,  61  inherited  the 
disease  from  the  mother  and  47  from  the  father.32 

Speaking  of  skin  diseases  Mr.  Sedgwi'ck  says:33  "In  some 
of  these  cases  it  is  recorded  that,  while  the  males  alone  have  suf- 
fered from  the  disease,  the  females  alone  have  been  able  to  transmit 
it,  as  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Appleton,  whose  daughter  conveyed  the 
complaint  to  his  grandsons,  and  who,  in  turn,  transmitted  it 
through  their  daughters  to  their  grandsons ;  the  males  in  this  fam- 
ily, as  in  many  others  similarly  affected,  never  inheriting  the  disease 
from  the  fathers,  but  always  through  females  from  their  grand- 
fathers." 

INHERITANCE    AT    CORRESPONDING    AGES. 

Not  all  characters  which  are  transmitted  from  parent  to  child 
are  present  in  the  child  at  birth,  but  appear  at  some  later  stage. 
In  such  cases  the  tendency  is  for  the  character  to  appear  in  the 
offspring  at  the  same  age  that  it  first  appeared  in  the  parent.  This 
rule  includes  nearly,  if  not  all,  secondary  sexual  characters,  which 
usually  appear  near  the  age  of  maturity,  as  in  the  case  of  beards 
on  men  and  the  change  of  voice  which  occurs  at  puberty.  Certain 
breeds  of  pigeons  do  not  acquire  their  characteristic  colors  until  they 
have  moulted  two,  three  or  four  times;  and  these  modifications  of 
plumage  are  regularly  transmitted.34  In  the  diseases  like  gout,  apo- 

(32)  Quoted  by  Miles  in  "Stock  Breeding." 

(33)  British  and  Foreign  Medico-Chirurgical  Review,  1861,  p.  246. 

(34)  Descent  of  Man,  Vol.  I,  p.  272. 


INHERITANCE,   VARIATION    AND   SELECTION.  39 

plexy  and  consumption,  the  tendency  is  for  them  to  appear  at  cer- 
tain definite  ages  in  both  parent  and  offspring. 

In  discussing  this  subject  Darwin  concludes,35  that  where 
characters  first  appear  late  in  life  in  one  sex  they  tend  to  be  trans- 
mitted to  that  sex  alone,  while  those  which  appear  early  in  life,  or 
before  maturity,  tend  to  be  transmitted  alike  to  both  sexes.  The 
general  truth  of  this  rule  will  be  apparent  by  considering  the  rela- 
tionship of  adult  males  and  females  to  their  young.  When  the 
males  and  females  resemble  each  other  they  usually  both  resemble 
the  young,  but  when  the  males  and  females  differ  markedly  from 
each  other  they  usually  differ  in  those  characters  which  appear  late 
in  life.  It  is  also  a  general  rule  that  when  the  adults  differ  from 
the  young  the  adult  male  differs  more  than  the  adult  female. 

INHERITANCE    AT    EARLIER    AGES. 

When  there  is  a  variation  from  the  general  rule  that  characters 
tend  to  appear  in  parent  and  offspring  at  corresponding  ages,  it 
seems  that  they  more  often  tend  to  appear  at  an  earlier  age  rather 
than  at  a  later  one.  Professor  Hyatt  has  assumed  that  the  earlier 
appearance  of  a  character  is  a  law  of  nature,  and  has  laid  down 
vhat  is  called  the  law  of  acceleration  or  tachygenesis.  He  says: 
"All  modifications  and  variations  in  progressive  series  tend  to  ap- 
pear first  in  the  adolescent  or  adult  stages  of  growth,  and  then  to 
be  inherited  in  successive  descendants  at  earlier  and  earlier  stages, 
according  to  the  law  of  acceleration,  until  they  become  embryonic 
or  are  crowded  out  of  the  organization  and  replaced  in  the  devel- 
opment by  characteristics  of  later  origin."36  While  I  have  no  doubt 
as  to  the  general  truth  of  this  law,  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  it 


(35)  Ibid.,  Vol.  I,  p.  276. 

(36)  Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Knowledge,  No.  673. 


4O  INHERITANCE,   VARIATION    AND   SELECTION. 

applies  less  to  the  organs  than  it  does  to  the  functions  of  the  organs, 
and  that  when  it  applies  to  the  organs  themselves,  it  does  so  only 
through  their  functions.  The  reasons  for  this  and  the  causes  lead- 
ing to  earlier  or  later  appearance  of  inherited  characters  will  be 
explained  in  a  later  chapter. 

SELECTION. 

When  a  litter  of  pigs  is  born,  according  to  the  laws  of  heredity 
they  are  like  their  mother,  and  according  to  the  laws  of  variation 
we  find  that  they  differ  one  from  another.  When  they  have  grown 
to  mature  size  we  find  that  some  are  larger  and  some  are  smaller 
than  the  mother.  If  we  should  select  the  largest  female  and  from 
her  and  the  largest  obtainable  male  we  raise  another  litter,  it  will 
again  be  found  that  some  grow  to  a  size  larger  and  some  to  a  size 
smaller  than  the  new  mother.  Again  selecting  the  largest  male  and 
female  for  another  litter,  we  again  find  variations  in  size  above  and 
below  the  size  of  the  parents,  and  we  will  have  some  specimen 
larger  than  any  immediate  ancestor.  Although  these  variations  in 
size  from  generation  to  generation  are  slight,  it  will  be  evident  that 
by  accumulating  these  slight  variations  it  will  only  be  a  question  of 
time  until  a  race  of  pigs  would  be  produced  as  large  as  elephants. 
If,  on  the  other  hand,  instead  of  selecting  the  largest  from  which 
to  breed  the  next  generation,  we  should  continually  select  the  small- 
est, it  would  be  only  a  question  of  time  when  we  should  have  pigs 
as  small  as  mice. 

Although  this  is  a  hypothetical  proposition  it  is  not  an  absurd- 
ity. That  such  variations  occur  we  know,  and  no  man  has  yet 
found  any  point,  or  indication  of  a  point,  where  they  cease.  In 
reality  our  hypothetical  case  represents  only  a  small  fraction  of 
what  the  scientific  world  now  accepts  as  a  fact.  That  fact  is  that 


INHERITANCE,   VARIATION    AND   SELECTION.  41 

all  animal  life,  from  the  largest  whale  down  to  the  microscopic 
unicellular  organism,  is  descended  from  some  primordial  form,  and 
consequently  that  all  animals  (and  all  plants,  for  that  matter)  are 
more  or  less  closely  related. 

KINDS   OF   SELECTION. 

This  process  of  selecting  particular  animals  or  particular  plants 
from  which  to  produce  another  generation  of  animals  or  plants 
is  what  is  known  as  "selection."  When  selection  is  practiced  by 
man  it  is  called  artificial  selection,  and  when  that  selection  has  a 
definite  object  in  view  and  is  carried  out  with  the  intention  of 
securing  definite  results,  it  becomes  methodical  selection.  It  is 
through  the  methodical  selection  and  preservation  of  desirable 
variations  that  we  have  obtained  our  improved  breeds  of  animals 
and  varieties  of  plants.  So  perfect  have  become  the  methods  of 
selection  that  it  is  said  that  a  breeder  can,  in  a  few  generations, 
produce  any  particular  form  of  animal  desired. 

During  the  early  history  of  man,  and  at  the  present  time  among 
savage  and  barbarous  people,  there  is  a  process  of  selection  that 
is  not  methodical  but  depends  upon  whim,  pleasure,  or  convenience, 
and  consequently  is  called  unconscious  selection.  Because  the  man, 
having  to  kill  an  animal,  kills  the  less  pleasing  or  useful  and  retains 
the  one  that  pleases  his  fancy,  unconscious  selection  improves  the 
breed  subjected  to  it  though  the  improvement  is  not  so  rapid  as 
with  methodical  selection. 

In  a  state  of  nature,  very  many  more  young  are  produced  than 
can  possibly  survive  to  reproduce.  If  there  were  not  a  constant 
elimination  of  individuals,  even  the  slowest  breeding  animals  would 
soon  overrun  the  surface  of  the  earth.  This  elimination  occurs 
through  struggles  for  food  during  periods  of  scarcity,  contests 


42  INHERITANCE,   VARIATION    AND   SELECTION. 

between  males  for  the  possession  of  females,  and  inability  to  escape 
from  enemies.  During  a  period  of  drought  when  there  is  a  scarcity 
of  herbage,  the  giraffe  with  the  longest  neck  will  be  able  to  obtain 
the  best  supply  of  food  and  will  survive  when  the  shorter  necked 
individual  will  succumb  from  starvation.  When  deers  are  pursued 
by  wolves,  it  is  the  fleet  ones  that  will  escape  and  the  slow  ones 
that  will  fall  victims.  Among  polygamous  animals,  as  wild  horses, 
wild  cattle,  the  deer  family  and  elephants,  the  larger  and  stronger 
males  expel  or  kill  the  smaller  and  weaker  ones.  This  process  of 
elimination  of  the  weaker  or  less  perfect,  and  preservation  of  the 
stronger  and  best  adapted  has  been  called  natural  selection,  or  the 
survival  of  the  fittest. 

In  addition  to  the  forms  of  selection  described,  there  is  another 
form  called  sexual  selection,  a  term  used  to  express  the  process  by 
which  a  female  selects  and  accepts  the  attentions  of  the  male  which 
is  most  pleasing  to  her.  It  is  through  sexual  selection  that  many 
male  birds  have  obtained  their  gorgeous  plumage  and  other  birds 
have  acquired  the  power  of  song. 

It  will  be  evident  that  before  there  can  be  selection,  or  survival 
of  the  fittest,  there  must  be  variations  from  which  the  selection  is 
made,  and  that  to  make  such  selection  effective  there  must  be  the 
force  of  heredity  to  preserve  the  variations  selected.  Having  these 
two  forces,  selection  becomes  an  explanation  of  the  process  of 
evolution. 

It  is  to  Mr.  Darwin  that  we  owe  our  knowledge  of  the  existence 
of  natural  selection  and  its  action  upon  all  forms  of  animals  and 
plants.  He  considered  it  as  probably  the  most  potent  factor  in 
organic  evolution,  but  since  his  day  many  naturalists  have  come  to 
consider  it  the  only  factor. 


INHERITANCE,    VARIATION    AND   SELECTION.  43 

IN-AND-IN     BREEDING. 

Closely  related  to  methodical  selection,  as  practiced  by  man 
on  domestic  animals,  is  the  process  of  in-and-in  breeding.  In-and- 
in  breeding  is  the  mating  of  closely  related  animals,  often  parent 
and  offspring,  or  brother  and  sister,  for  the  purpose  of  fixing  a 
particular  character  upon  a  breed.  Thus,  when  a  new  character 
appears,  the  chances  of  having  that  character  reappear  in  the  off- 
spring are  very  much  increased  if  the  character  is  common  to  both 
parents.  As  new  characters  appear  rarely,  and  as  the  probabilities 
of  the  identical  character  simultaneously  appearing  in  two  unre- 
lated animals  of  opposite  sexes  are  extremely  remote,  the  breeder 
carefully  watches  the  progeny  of  the  newly  varied  individual  until 
he  finds  one  of  the  opposite  sex  having  the  same  peculiarity,  and 
then  mates  parent  and  child.  Some,  if  not  all,  of  the  progeny  of 
a  couple  so  mated  are  quite  certain  to  also  have  the  new  character- 
istics. By  the  careful  selection  and  mating  of  these  last  offspring 
the  new  characters  are  fixed  firmly  within  a  few  generations.  By 
this  process  we  have  a  new  breed  of  animals,  and  as  long  as  there 
is  no  cross  with  animals  outside  the  breed  we  have  what  is  known 
as  "pure  blood."  As  a  consequence,  all  of  our  fancy  breeds  of 
animals  are  the  product  of  in-and-in  breeding.  Darwin  considered 
in-and-in  breeding  to  be  injurious  when  carried  to  a  considerable 
extent,  and  this  is  true  when  the  evil  effects  are  not  eliminated  by 
judicious  selection  of  the  best  individuals  and  the  rejection  of  the 
poorer  ones.  That  selection  is  a  full  cure  for  any  ill  effects  of 
in-and-in  breeding  is  abundantly  proved  by  the  superiority  of  pure 
breeds  over  mongrel  stock. 

EFFECTS  OF  MATING  RELATED  ANIMALS. 

The  evil  effects  of  in-and-in  breeding  arise  from  the  fact  that 
in  many  animals  there  are  certain  dormant  defects.  When  unrelated 


44  INHERITANCE,   VARIATION    AND   SELECTION. 

animals  are  mated  there  is  little  probability  that  the  same  dormant 
defects  will  exist  in  both,  but  when  both  parents  are  from  the  same 
stock  the  probabilities  of  the  same  defect  existing  in  both  are  in- 
creased, and  the  mating  of  these  two  may  cause  the  dormant  defect 
to  become  a  manifest  one.  Of  all  animals,  man  is  the  most  vicious 
in  respect  to  his  personal  life.  By  immoderate  indulgences  in 
intoxicants  and  narcotics,  and  by  dissipation  and  excesses  of  all 
kinds,  man  acquires  a  great  variety  of  defects,  both  dormant  and 
manifest,  and  these  defects  are  transmitted  to  his  offspring.  It 
therefore  happens  that  with  man  even  a  remote  kind  of  in-and-in 
breeding  often  results  in  insanity  or  degeneracy  of  some  kind,  and 
much  has  been  written  about  the  evil  effects  of  marriage  between 
cousins.  Such  evil  effects,  however,  do  not  arise  from  the  rela- 
tionship itself,  but  from  similar  dormant  defects  inherited  from 
the  same  vicious  ancestor  some  few  generations  back. 

In-and-in  breeding  is  therefore  the  mating  of  animals  having 
identical  characteristics,  the  result  of  which  is  to  make  manifest 
what  was  before  dormant,  or  to  accentuate  and  fix  what  was  before 
mildly  manifest  and  transient.  The  expression  is  usually  applied 
to  the  mating  of  closely  related  animals,  but  in  future  pages  I  shall 
refer  to  marriage  between  persons  inheriting  similar  characteristics 
from  different  ancestors  as  a  species  of  in-and-in  breeding. 

PREPOTENCY. 

If  the  offspring  of  parents  differing  considerably  from  each 
other  be  carefully  examined,  it  will  usually  be  found  that  they 
resemble  one  parent  more  than  the  other.  The  power  that  one 
parent  has  more  than  the  other  to  impress  the  offspring  is  called 
prepotency,  and  may  exist  in  either  the  male  or  female.  Usually 
the  male  is  more  apt  to  be  prepotent  than  the  female,  as  in  recip- 


INHERITANCE,   VARIATION    AND   SELECTION.  45 

rocal  crosses  between  the  horse  and  the  ass,  in  which  the  mule  more 
strongly  resembles  the  ass,  and  the  hinny  resembles  the  horse.  In 
some  cases  of  crosses  between  different  breeds,  one  breed  is  pre- 
potent over  the  other  irrespective  of  whether  it  is  represented  by 
the  male  or  female. 

In  cases  of  crosses  between  different  breeds  of  animals,  pre- 
potency appears  to  lie  with  that  breed  which  has  had  its  charac- 
teristics most  firmly  fixed  by  in-and-in  breeding.  Thus  pure  blood 
animals  are  prepotent  over  mongrel  stocks.  This  fact  is  sometimes 
taken  advantage  of  by  breeders,  as  was  the  case  of  the  production 
of  the  Charmoise  breed  of  sheep  in  France.  It  appears  that  half- 
bred  English  sheep  will  thrive  in  France,  but  that  full,  or  more  than 
half,  English  blood  are  failures;  also  that  half-bred  sheep  do  not 
exhibit  the  improvement  desired.  Under  these  circumstances  M. 
Nalingie-Nouel  proceeded  as  follows:  He  produced  a  mixture  of 
four  native  French  breeds,  which  was  without  decided  character, 
and  to  such  mixed-blood  ewes  he  put  a  pure  New  Kent  ram.  From 
this  "one  obtains  a  lamb  containing  fifty-hundredths  of  the  purest 
and  most  ancient  of  English  blood,  with  twelve  and  a  half  hun- 
dredths  of  four  different  French  races,  which  are  individually 
lost  in  the  preponderance  of  English  blood,  and  disappear  almost 
entirely,  leaving  the  improving  type  in  the  ascendant."37 

As  between  two  individuals  of  the  same  breed,  the  same  rule 
probably  holds,  that  the  individual  which  has  had  its  characteristics 
the  more  firmly  fixed  by  in-breeding  will  be  prepotent.  In  the  life 
of  an  individual,  a  character  is  more  firmly  fixed  in  comparative 
old  age  than  in  youth,  consequently  we  may  assume,  in  the  absence 
of  evidence  to  the  contrary,  that,  other  things  being  equal,  ffo  older 
individual  will  be  prepotent  over  the  younger  one. 

(37)     Miles,  Stock  Breeding,  p.  200. 


46  INHERITANCE,   VARIATION    AND   SELECTION. 

As  fixity  of  character  is  in  contradistinction  to  variability,  in  a 
cross  between  two  races,  that  race  will  be  prepotent  which  has  been 
the  less  variable  during  the  immediately  preceding  generations. 
The  white  race  is  more  variable  than  the  negro,  and  in  crosses 
between  them  we  find  negro  characteristics  predominate.  It  is  well 
known  that  animals  and  plants  under  domestication  are  more  vari- 
able than  they  are  in  the  wild  state,  and  it  is  also  known  that  this 
variability  is  induced  by  the  stimulated  conditions  existing  through 
successive  generations.  As  civilization,  as  we  know  it,  is  a  series  of 
intensely  stimulated  conditions,  we  see  why  the  civilized  races  are 
more  variable  and  less  prepotent  than  uncivilized  races.  This 
generalization  must,  however,  be  used  with  caution  because  the 
very  intensity  of  civilization  acts  to  give  a  fixity  to  some  character- 
istics which  are  less  firmly  fixed  by  a  less  degree  of  intensity. 

GROWTH  AND  REPAIR. 

Growth  is  essentially  a  slow  process,  depending  upon  the  amount 
of  material  digested  and  assimilated  over  and  above  what  is  neces- 
sary to  maintain  the  individual  in  a  uniform  condition.  As  this 
surplus  is  always  a  limited  quantity,  any  acceleration  of  growth  in 
one  part  is  accompanied  by  a  lack  of  growth  or  degeneracy  in  some 
other  part.  Strength  and  endurance,  in  the  sense  of  vitality,  are 
as  much  matters  of  growth  as  is  mere  increase  in  bulk,  and  the 
development  of  these  qualities  absorbs  assimilated  nutriment  just  as 
completely.  Those  animals  and  plants  which  are  strong,  enduring 
and  tenacious  of  life  are  those  which  grow  slowly  in  bulk,  while 
those  which  increase  rapidly  in  size  are  weak  and  are  easily  killed. 
Functional  power  is  also  a  matter  of  slow  development,  and  while 
it  is  associated  with  the  size  of  the  functioning  organ  it  is  not  pro- 
portional to  such  size.  It  also  absorbs  nourishment  in  its  develop- 


INHERITANCE,   VARIATION    AND   SELECTION.  47 

ment,  and  the  very  rapid  development  of  functional  power  in  some 
one  organ  can  only  be  at  the  expense  of  the  proper  development 
of  some  other  organ  or  quality. 

Growth  is  distinguished  from  repair  in  that  it  involves  increase 
in  size  without  the  incorporation  of  force  or  power  in  the  growing 
organ.  On  the  other  hand,  repair  is  a  process  of  rebuilding  a  wasted 
organ  so  as  to  incorporate  in  it  a  functional  power  that  it  did  not 
have  before.  Growth  and  repair  sometimes  accompany  each  other 
and  sometimes  do  not.  Thus,  the  muscles  of  a  child  both  grow  and 
are  repaired;  the  same  muscles  in  an  adult,  when  used  uniformly 
for  a  long  time,  are  repaired  but  do  not  grow ;  the  hair  grows,  but 
is  not  repaired.  In  organs  which  both  grow  and  are  repaired  the 
ratio  of  growth  and  repair  to  each  other  is  continually  changing. 
In  the  embryonic  stage  there  is  growth  with  but  little  or  no  repair ; 
in  youth  the  two  are  nearly  equal ;  and  in  the  adult  we  have  repair 
with  but  little  or  no  growth. 


CHAPTER   II. 

THEORIES  OF  HEREDITY  AND  VARIATION. 

The  persistency  with  which  heredity  acts  in  preserving  the 
peculiarities  of  races  and  individuals  through  many  generations, 
and  the  ever  present  variations  of  these  peculiarities  have  given 
rise  to  many  diverse  theories  to  account  for  their  relationship  to 
each  other.  "Like  produces  like"  is  a  very  old  saying,  and  when 
we  consider  that  the  offspring  comes  directly  from  the  parent,  it  is 
difficult  to  conceive  that  it  would  be  anything  other  than  that  from 
which  it  came.  We  can  imagine  how  the  same  thing  may  at  cer- 
tain times  take  different  forms,  but  not  how  one  thing  may  become 
another  thing  unless  it  be  through  the  total  destruction  of  the  first 
thing.  Thus  we  may  have  water  now  as  ice,  again  as  steam,  and 
at  another  time  as  snow,  but  under  each  and  every  form  it  is  water. 
It  can  be  transformed  into  some  other  substance  only  by  decom- 
position and  the  recombination  of  its  constituent  elements  with  some 
other  elements.  Likewise  a  being  descended  from  a  human  being 
can  be  no  other  than  human.  He  can  be  transmuted  into  a  plant 
only  by  disintegration  and  reabsorption.  Inheritance  being  simply 
an  expression  for  the  fact  that  the  deriven  is  like  that  from  which 
it  is  derived,  is  self-evident  and  needs  no  explanation.  Variation, 
on  the  contrary,  being  something  different  from  what  is  apparently 
self-evident,  demands  an  explanation  of  when,  where  and  how  it 
arises. 

VARIATION    DEFINED. 

The  word  "variation,"  as  used  in  biology,  represents  two  dis- 
tinct conditions  or  operations :  First,  the  appearance  of  an  entirely 

48 


NAPOLEON   [23] 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN  [51] 


THEORIES   OF    HEREDITY    AND   VARIATION.  49 

new  organ  or  character ;  and  second,  a  change,  more  or  less  marked, 
in  some  organ  or  character  already  in  existence.  It  is  in  this  second 
sense  in  which  the  word  will  be  principally  used,  and  it  will  be 
variation  of  existing  characters  of  which  the  following  pages  will 
treat. 

"The  characters  which  are  inherited,  and  which  are  present  at 
birth,  are  termed  congenital,  while  those  that  appear  in  the  body 
under  the  influence  of  extreme  stimuli  are  termed  acquired."1  If 
the  character  which  appears  at  birth  differs  from  the  character  of 
the  parent,  then  we  have  a  congenital  variation.  An  acquired 
variation  we  can  understand  because  we  can  see  it  occurring  as  the 
direct  results  of  causes  with,  which  we  are  familiar,  but  congenital 
variations  occur  out  of  sight,  and  we  can  arrive  at  the  cause  of 
them  only  by  a  process  of  reasoning  or  experiment. 

One  of  the  causes  assigned  for  congenital  variations  is  the 
result  of  environment  or  circumstances  under  which  the  ancestors 
have  lived.  Dogs  taken  from  England  to  India  degenerate  in  a 
few  generations;  sheep  taken  from  one  place  to  another  change 
in  their  form  and  in  the  quality  of  their  wool;  and  plants  moved 
from  their  natural  habitat  acquire  new  characteristics  which  are 
inherited. 

Another  cause  assigned  for  variations  that  become  hereditary 
is  the  result  of  use  and  disuse.  Darwin  found  that  tame  ducks 
have  their  legs  larger  and  wings  smaller  than  wild  ducks.  This 
is  assumed  to  be  an  inherited  effect  arising  from  the  fact  that  tame 
ducks  walk  more  and  fly  less.  Some  naturalists  think  that  the 
large  hind  legs  of  a  kangaroo  are  due  to  his  habit  of  jumping, 
while  others  maintain  that  his  habit  of  jumping  is  due  tr  ^e  fact 
that  he  has  large  and  powerful  legs. 

(i)     Cope,  Primary  Factors  of  Origin  of  Evolution,  p.  399- 


50  THEORIES    OF    HEREDITY    AND   VARIATION. 

Still  another  cause  of  variation  is  said  to  be  the  fact  that  the 
individual  is  the  product  of  two  unlike  parents,  and  consequently 
cannot  be  entirely  like  one  without  causing  inheritance  to  fail  in 
respect  to  the  other.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  this  is  a  cause,  but 
if  it  be  the  only  cause,  then  the  question  would  arise:  How  did 
the  parents  become  different  ?  Those  who  advocate  this  theory  to 
the  exclusion  of  the  theory  involving  enviroment  and  use,  add  to 
it  the  statement  that  the  germ  plasm  out  of  which  the  new  indi- 
vidual grows  is  subject  to  a  series  of  divisions  and  conjunctions, 
and  that  as  these  divisions  and  conjunctions  are  not  always  equal, 
the  products  are  variable. 

ARISTOTLE  ON   HEREDITY. 

The  earliest  writer  on  the  subject  of  heredity  appears  to  have 
been  Aristotle,  who  lived  384  to  322  B.  C.  In  his  "Generation  of 
Animals"  (I.,  Sec.  35),  he  says:  "Children  resemble  their  parents 
not  only  in  congenital  characters,  but  in  those  acquired  later  in  life. 
For  cases  are  known  where  parents  have  been  marked  by  scars,  and 
children  have  shown  traces  of  these  scars  at  the  same  points.  A 
case  is  also  reported  from  Chalcedon  in  which  a  father  had  been 
branded  with  a  letter,  and  the  same  letter,  somewhat  blurred  and 
not  sharply  defined,  appeared  upon  the  arm  of  his  child."  At 
another  place  (History  of  Animals),  Aristotle  refers  again  to  this 
matter  and  states  that  the  inheritance  of  mutilations  is  rare.  From 
this  it  is  apparent  that  Aristotle  considered  that  characters  acquired 
in  one  generation  become  congenital  in  the  next,  and  that  he  carries 
it  far  enough  to  include  the  occasional  transmission  of  mutilations. 
Although  we  frequently  hear  of  inherited  mutilations,  the  reports 
concerning  them  are  hard  to  corroborate.  Dr.  Talbot2  has,  how- 
(2)  Degeneracy. 


THEORIES   OF    HEREDITY   AND   VARIATION.  5! 

ever,  by  gathering  a  large  amount  of  statistics,  proved  that,  among 
Jews,  children  are  not  infrequently  born  wholly  or  partly  circum- 
cised. This  appears  to  be  due  to  the  continued  repetition  of  the 
same  mutilation  generation  after  generation. 

LAMARCK'S  LAWS. 

Although  Aristotle  was  the  first  to  advance  the  theory  that 
acquired  characters  become  congenital  characters  in  succeeding 
generations,  the  theory  of  such  transference  as  an  explanation  of 
variations  was  not  fully  stated  and  explained  until  done  so  by 
Lamarck,  a  French  philosopher,  in  his  "Philosophic  Zoologique," 
published  in  1809.  The  statement  of  his  theory  may  be  best  given 
by  quoting  his  third  and  fourth  laws: 

THIRD    LAW. 

The  development  of  organs  and  their  force,  or  power  of  action, 
are  in  direct  relationship  to  the  employment  of  these  organs. 

FOURTH    LAW. 

All  that  has  been  acquired  or  altered  in  the  organization  of 
individuals  during  their  lives  is  preserved  by  generation,  and  trans- 
mitted to  individuals  which  spring  from  those  which  have  under- 
gone these  changes. 

At  another  place  Lamarck  explains  his  third  law  as  follows : 
"In  every  animal  which  has  not  passed  the  term  of  its  develop- 
ment, the  more  frequent  and  sustained  employment  of  each  organ 
strengthens  little  by  little  this  organ,  develops  it,  and  gives  it  a 
power  proportional  to  the  length  of  its  employment;  whereas  the 
constant  lack  of  use  of  the  same  organ  insensibly  weakens  it,  dete- 
riorates it,  progressively  diminishes  its  powers,  and  ends  by  causing 
it  to  disappear." 


52  THEORIES   OF    HEREDITY   AND   VARIATION. 

The  third  law  and  its  explanation  is  now  known  as  the  "Law 
of  Use  and  Disuse,"  or  kinetogenesis ;  the  fourth  law,  as  "Inherit- 
ance of  Acquired  Characters;*'  and  the  two  of  them  together  as 
"Lamarckian  Factors." 

We  have  in  Lamarck's  laws  a  clear  and  distinct  statement  of 
the  cause  of  variations,  but  Lamarck  did  not  give  any  adequate 
proof  of  their  truth.  Neither  has  any  one  since  Lamarck's  time 
been  able  to  give  a  proof  that  was  entirely  satisfactory,  though  many 
naturalists  believe  that  these  laws  are  a  true  statement  of  facts. 


WEISMANN'S  THEORY. 


The  opposing  ideas  are  best  represented  by  the  theory  of  August 
Weismann,  a  German  embryologist  who  has  carried  his  investiga- 
tions back  to  the  earliest  known  source  of  life.  The  most  primitive 
forms  of  animal  life  consist  of  minute  rounded  bodies  of  gelatinous 
substance.  These  bodies  are  called  "cells,"  and  each  is  a  complete 
individual  in  itself.  An  individual  which  consists  of  a  single  cell 
is  called  unicellular,  and  unicellular  organisms  are  generally  desig- 
nated by  the  term  plasm  or  protoplasm.  Individuals  which  consist 
of  a  number  of  cells  grouped  together  are  called  multicellular,  and 
multicellular  organisms  are  a  step  higher  in  the  scale  of  nature. 
In  unicellular  organisms  the  cell  grows  for  a  time,  then  there  appears 
around  it  an  equatorial  depression  like  a  string  tied  around  the 
center  of  a  pillow.  This  depression  gets  deeper  and  deeper  until 
the  two  halves  are  finally  separated  and  float  away  as  two  complete 
cells.  These  new  cells  again  grow  and  each  again  divides  in  the 
same  manner.  In  the  lower  forms  of  multicellular  organisms  an 
individual  consists  of  a  certain  number  of  cells,  say  sixteen.  These 
cells  grow  to  a  certain  size,  when  each  cell  will  divide  into1  two 
cells  of  smaller  size,  making  an  individual  of  thirty-two  cells.  The 


THEORIES    OF    HEREDITY    AND   VARIATION.  53 

individual  then  divides  itself  into  two  groups  of  sixteen  cells,  each 
group  becoming  an  individual.  After  this  division  a  new  period 
of  growth  begins,  and  the  processes  of  division  are  repeated. 

In  some  forms,  after  a  repeated  number  of  divisions,  the  cells 
become  weakened  or  degenerated  and  are  not  able  to  continue  the 
process  of  growth  and  division.  When  this  occurs,  two  cells,  or 
two  groups  of  cells,  which  have  not  separated  from  each  other, 
coalesce  or  merge  into  each  other  and  form  one  stronger  individual. 
After  they  have  remained  in  this  condition  for  a  time  they  are  again 
able  to  begin  the  process  of  producing  new  individuals  by  a  series 
of  divisions  and  subdivisions.  In  this  coalescence  we  have  the 
beginning  of  sexual  propagation. 

DIFFERENT    KINDS   OF    CELLS. 

As  we  get  higher  in  the  scale  of  multicellular  beings,  the  cells 
become  differentiated,  so  that  to  some  cells  are  given  certain  duties 
to  perform,  while  to  other  cells  are  given  certain  other  duties.  In 
a  sense  these  cells  are  like  the  different  individuals  in  civilized 
societies  where  one  man  is  a  farmer,  a  second  is  a  tailor,  a  third  is 
a  shoemaker,  a  fourth  is  a  merchant,  and  so  on.  Those  cells  to 
which  are  given  the  office  of  reproduction  are  called  germ  cells, 
and  the  substance  of  germ  cells  is  called  germ  plasm.  The  cells 
which  constitute  the  body  of  the  individual  and  form  the  bones  and 
muscles  by  means  of  which  the  individual  is  able  to  move  about 
and  secure  its  food,  are  called  the  somatic  cells,  or  simply  the  soma. 

When  we  come  to  man  and  the  higher  animals  and  higher  plants, 
the  germ  cells  are  able  to  propagate  themselves,  or  at  least  to  become 
multiplied  in  number,  but  they  are  not  able  to  develop  beyond  the 
stage  of  simple  cells  without- coming  into  contact  and  merging 
(coalescing)  with  cells  of  a  slightly  different  character.,  Thsse  two 


1*4  THEORIES   OF    HEREDITY    AND   VARIATION. 

kinds  of  cells  are  known  as  male  cells  (spermatozoa)  and  female 
cells  (ova),  and  may  be  borne  by  different  individual0  as  in  most 
animals,  or  by  the  same  individual  as  in  the  flowers  of  most  plants. 
When  there  is  a  union  or  coalescence  between  an  ovum  and  a 
spermatozoon  the  resulting  cell  has  the  power,  under  proper  con- 
ditions, of  developing  into  a  complete  individual  of  the  parent 
species. 

Weismann's  theory  is  that,  in  the  formation  of  a  new  individual 
out  of  this  compound  cell,  all  of  the  germ  plasm  which  constitutes 
it  is  not  used  up  in  the  production  or  growth  of  the  individual,  but 
that  part  of  it  is  carried  over  intact  within  the  body  of  the  new 
individual,  and  is  the  material  which  originates  the  growth  of  more 
germ  plasm  in  the  later  life  of  this  individual.  In  other  words,  he 
holds  that  the  germ  cells  grow  only  from  germ  cells,  and  not  at  all 
from  somatic  cells.  As  we  know  that  somatic  cells  are  the  differ- 
entiated descendants  of  germ  cells,  and  have  no  conclusive  evidence 
that  germ  cells  are  produced  from  somatic  cells,  there  is  much 
reason  in  Weismann's  contention.  In  fact,  the  very  definition  of 
germ  cells  and  somatic  cells  implies  that  the  first  are  for  reproduc- 
tion and  the  second  are  not.  The  relationship  of  germ  cells  to 
somatic  cells  is  like  the  relationship  of  bees  in  a  hive  to  each  other, 
where  the  queen  is  for  reproduction  and  the  workers  are  incapable 
of  reproduction,  but  act  simply  as  gatherers  of  material  to  support 
the  colony. 

THE  ISOLATION  OF  GERM  CELLS. 

While  the  germ  cells  are  housed  within  and  are  nourished  by 
the  body  (the  soma),  the  followers  of  Weismann  insist  that  that 
fact  does  not  at  all  affect  the  germ  cells  as  such,  because  they  are 
completely  removed  from  external  conditions  and  their  surroundings 
are  so  nearly  identical,  under  all  circumstances  and  through  any 


THEORIES    OF    HEREDITY    AND   VARIATION.  55 

number  of  generations,  that  external  circumstances  are  without 
influence  that  will  reach  a  succeeding  generation.  A  man  may  be 
born  weak  and  frail,  yet  may,  by  care  with  his  food  and  bodily 
exercise,  develop  into  a  robust  individual,  but  the  Weismannians 
insist  that  that  fact  will  not  make  his  children  stronger  or  healthier, 
because  they  claim  it  is  the  somatic  cells  and  not  the  germ  cells  that 
are  developed  and  strengthened.  To  admit  such  a  result  would  be 
to  admit  use-inheritance,  the  denial  of  which  is  a  fundamental  part 
of  their  theory. 

NEO-DARWINIANS    AND    NEO-LAMARCKIANS. 

Those  who  support  the  Weismannian  theory,  and  other  theories 
of  a  similar  character,  call  themselves  Neo-Darwinians,  not  because 
Darwin  was  a  believer  in  any  such  doctrine,  but  because  they  explain 
evolution  entirely  by  variation  and  selection,  the  elements  on  which 
Darwin  based  his  theory  of  the  Origin  of  Species.  In  this,  however, 
they  go  much  beyond  Darwin  by  making  "variation"  into  "con- 
genital variation,"  while  Darwin  believed  that  variations  were  due 
in  part  to  the  accumulated  effects  of  use  and  disuse.  While  the  Neo- 
Lamarckians  explain  the  loss  of  the  power  of  flight  in  domestic  ducks 
to  the  disuse  of  their  wings,  the  Neo-Darwinians  explain  that  tame 
ducks,  not  being  required  to  fly  to  procure  food  and  to  escape  ene- 
mies, the  variations  toward  greater  wing  power  are  not  preserved  by 
selection,  and  consequently  that  wing  power  deteriorates.  They  also 
argue  that  ducks  with  greater  wing  power  are  more  liable  to  escape, 
and  that  man  deliberately  kills  off  ducks  liable  to  escape  by  flying, 
and  preserves  those  less  able  to  fly  and  less  wild.  They  thus  bring 
selection  to  explain  what  had  before  been  explained  by  the  inherited 
effects  of  use  and  disuse. 

It  is  maintained  by  the  Neo-Darwinians  that  as  long  as  any 


56  THEORIES   OF    HEREDITY   AND   VARIATION. 

change  can  be  explained  by  the  known  means  of  congenital  varia- 
tion and  selection,  it  is  unreasonable  to  attribute  that  change  to  the 
inherited  result  of  use  or  disuse,  while  at  the  same  time  they  admit 
that  if  any  change  can  be  shown  which  is  explained  by  use  and  dis- 
use and  is  inexplicable  by  congenital  variation,  then  their  theory 
falls  to  the  ground.  The  introduction  of  the  word  "congenital"  is 
the  key  to  the  whole  controversy,  because  it  is  universally  admitted 
that  all  change  is  due  to  variation.  The  only  question  is  the  cause 
of  variation. 

Weismann  does  not  fully  explain  how  variations  occur,  but  he 
assumes  that  the  two  uniting  cells  vary  somewhat  in  size,  in  form, 
in  chemical  formation,  or  in  manner  of  uniting,  and  they  thereby 
cause  a  variation  in  the  resultant  being.  This  kind  of  variation  is 
called  congenital  variation.  That  congenital  variation  exists  in 
some  form  is  shown  by  the  variations  in  twins,  and  in  the  differ- 
ences among  the  different  individuals  in  a  litter  of  puppies,  kittens 
or  pigs. 

CONFLICT  OF   THEORIES. 

We  thus  have  two  theories  which  conflict  with  each  other  and 
neither  of  which  has  been  fully  and  satisfactorily  demonstrated. 
The  issue  between  them  is  sharply  defined,  and  consists  of  the  ques- 
tion as  to  whether  or  not  acquired  characters  are  inherited  and  thus 
become  congenital.  If  the  answer  to  this  question  had  only  an 
academical  interest,  or  if  only  related  to  the  animals  and  plants 
with  which  man  has  to  deal,  then  it  would  not  be  very  important 
whether  the  question  were  answered  or  not,  as  these  animals  and 
plants  may  be  dealt  with  in  a  satisfactory  manner  by  selection.  But 
as  it  also  involves  man,  and  as  we  cannot  use  selection  by  killing 
off  the  poor  specimens  of  humanity  and  breeding  only  from  the  best, 


THEORIES    OF    HEREDITY    AND   VARIATION.  57 

the  question  takes  on  an  importance  that  it  would  not  otherwise 
have. 

A  little  consideration  will  show  the  reason  why  this  question 
is  one  of  vital  importance.  Man  is  a  free  agent,  more  or  less  cir- 
cumscribed by  heredity  and  environment.  Consequently  he  may,, 
in  a  large  measure,  do  what  he  pleases,  or  what  his  intelligence  tells 
him  is  wise,  convenient  or  safe.  If  he  goes  out  walking,  he  may 
turn  to  the  right  or  turn  to  the  left  as  suits  his  fancy ;  he  may  live 
a  life  of  goodness,  kindness  and  charity;  or  he  may  act  the  part 
of  the  deepest  dyed  villain  as  long  as  his  wit  will  enable  him  to 
avoid  being  found  out. 

While  some  men  are  so  hedged  in  by  hereditary  traits  that  they 
are  not  able  to  act  by  choice  anywhere  within  such  a  wide  range,  a 
very  large  part,  if  not  the  majority  of  men  are  so  able.  Even  those 
who  are  handicapped  by  a  vicious  inheritance,  if  above  the  grade 
of  idiocy,  are  capable  of  leading  relatively  better  or  worse  lives,  and 
this  capability  is  very  largely  dependent  upon  intelligence  and  brain 
power.  A  man  of  great  mental  ability  has  little  difficulty  in  choosing 
his  mode  of  life,  and  he  usually  chooses  to  lead  a  respectable  life. 
The  man  who  is  morally  weak  is  the  man  who  is  mentally  weak. 

QUESTION    OF    MORAL    RESPONSIBILITY. 

If  it  be  true  that  all  the  qualities,  good  and  bad,  with  which  a 
man  is  endowed  when  he  is  born  have  their  origin  in  the  chemical 
composition  of  the  germ  plasm,  or  in  its  divisions,  or  in  its  con- 
junctions, and  consequently  are  absolutely  independent  of  any  action 
of  the  parents  arising  from  free  will,  then  the  parent  has  no  moral 
responsibility  arising  from  parenthood  except  such  as  arises  after 
the  child  is  born.  He  may,  within  the  range  of  his  free  will,  be 
virtuous  or  vicious,  be  active  or  indolent,  in  fact  may  be  or  do  any- 


58  THEORIES    OF    HEREDITY    AND   VARIATION. 

thing  whatever  and  his  children  will  not  be  affected  thereby  in  the 
remotest  degree.  They  will  be  exactly  what  their  grandparents 
transmitted,  plus  or  minus  such  variations  as  fortuitously  arise. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  there  be  such  a  thing  as  use-inheritance, 
and  children  are  influenced  for  good  or  bad  by  the  pre-natal  actions 
of  their  parents  within  the  range  of  free  will,  then  the  moral 
responsibility  of  parents  reaches  back  to  their  own  early  lives,  and 
after  the  birth  of  children  reaches  forward  to  their  grandchildren. 
Not  only  would  there  be  direct  responsibility  on  the  part  of  parents, 
but  that  responsibility  would  extend  to  the  State  to  see  that  all 
reasonable  efforts  be  made  to  improve  and  develop  future  genera- 
tions. In  fact,  if  use-inheritance  be  an  actuality,  then  there  is  within 
the  hands  of  the  present  generation  the  power  to  improve  future 
generations,  and  consequently  the  race,  more  fully  and  completely 
than  would  be  possible  through  the  most  scientific  process  of  selec- 
tion. All  that  is  necessary  is  positive  knowledge  that  characters 
acquired  by  the  parents  are  transmitted  to  the  offspring,  and  a 
knowledge  of  the  conditions  under  which  such  transmission  may 
take  place.  If  this  knowledge  will  give  this  power,  then  it  is  difficult 
to  conceive  of  any  knowledge  that  is  more  important  to  acquire. 


CHAPTER  III. 

BASIS   OF   INVESTIGATION. 

It  having  been  shown  that  the  problem  before  us  is  to  determine 
whether  acquired  characters  are  or  are  not  transmitted  to  the  off- 
spring, it  becomes  necessary  to  define  the  range  within  which  such 
inquiry  should  be  carried.  It  may  be  admitted  in  advance  that  not 
all  acquired  characters  are  the  results  of  the  functional  activity  of 
those  organs  with  which  they  are  associated,  and  consequently  that 
if  non-functional  characters  become  inherited,  such  inheritance  is 
not  due  to  use.  Thus,  hair  which  was  originally  straight  may 
become  wavy,  that  which  was  light  may  become  dark,  or  that 
which  was  dark  may  become  white.  It  is  difficult  to  conceive  how 
such  changes  could  be  due  to  any  activity  of  the  hair,  and  they 
certainly  are  not  due  to  free  will  actions  on  the  part  of  the 
individual.  It  is  true  that  hair  which  was  rough  and  coarse  may, 
by  care  and  attention,  become  smooth  and  fine,  and  it  is  possible 
that  such  an  acquired  character  may  become  hereditary,  but  that  is 
quite  different  from  a  case  in  which  the  character  is  acquired 
through  the  use  of  the  organ  itself. 

ORGANS   AND   THEIR  FUNCTIONS. 

To  find  the  effects  of  use  we  should  choose  an  organ  which  has 
a  functional  activity  of  its  own,  and  one  in  which  such  activity  is 
within  the  control  of  the  individual.  An  organ  and  its  function  are 
not  the  same,  and  the  functional  activity  and  power  of  an  organ 
does  not  necessarily  correspond  to  the  size  and  shape  of  the  organ. 
A  finger  is  made  of  muscle,  bone,  blood  vessels,  nerves  and  skin, 

59 


6O  BASIS    OF   INVESTIGATION. 

besides  certain  minor  parts.  The  function  of  the  muscle  is  contract- 
ability  from  which  we  obtain  force.  The  function  of  the  bones  is 
to  furnish  a  support  or  base  upon  which  the  muscles  may  act.  The 
blood  vessels  supply  material  to  repair  the  waste  due  to  functional 
activity  of  the  muscles;  the  nerves  convey  sensation  by  which  the 
action  of  the  muscles  may  be  controlled;  and  the  skin  serves  as  a 
casing  to  contain  the  other  parts.  The  nose,  an  organ  not  differing 
very  much  in  size  or  shape  from  the  finger,  has  approximately  the 
same  proportions  of  muscle,  bone,  blood  vessels,  nerves  and  skin, 
but  the  functional  activity  of  its  muscles  is  vastly  less.  When  we 
use  the  finger  we  use  principally  its  muscles,  when  we  use  the  nose 
we  use  principally  its  nerves — olfactory  nerves.  The  external 
human  ear,  though  differing  widely  from  the  finger  and  nose  in 
shape,  does  not  differ  much  in  the  amount  of  material  out  of  which 
it  is  formed.  It  is,  however,  inert.  What  function  it  has  is  simply 
that  of  deflecting  sound  waves,  and  this  function  is  not  within  the 
control  of  the  individual. 

EFFECT   OF   EXERCISE. 

If  we  exercise  the  fingers  continually,  as  in  piano  playing,  they 
acquire  both  strength  and  flexibility.  Strength  and  flexibility  are, 
therefore,  acquired  characters  arising  from  use  of  the  muscles  of  the 
fingers.  If  we  examine  the  fingers  before  and  after  such  acquire- 
ment, we  find  that  the  differences  in  size  and  shape  are  scarcely 
perceptible.  These  acquired  characters  of  strength  and  flexibility 
give  the  fingers  an  increased  functional  capacity,  i.  e.,  an  increased 
ability  to  perform  their  natural  functions.  When  we  find  an  indi- 
vidual with  characters  which  might  possibly  be  ascribed  to  the 
results  of  ancestral  use,  we  find  these  characters  are  not  necessarily 
organs  of  increased  size,  but  organs  having  an  increased  functional 


BASIS   OF   INVESTIGATION.  6l 

capacity.  Organs  of  a  given  size  and  shape  are  transmitted  from 
generation  to  generation  with  great  persistency  and  with  very  little 
variation,  but  the  functional  capacity  of  these  organs  varies  greatly 
and  often  varies  rapidly.  We  know  that  use  will  cause  an  organ  to 
vary  in  power  much  more  rapidly  than  it  varies  in  size  or  shape, 
and  when  we  observe  that  an  organ  is  transmitted  in  its  normal 
size  and  shape,  but  with  tremendously  increased  power,  it  is  hard 
to  conceive  how  such  a  variation  could  occur  except  through  an 
ancestor  having  acquired  such  power  in  the  same  organ  and  having 
transmitted  that  power  to  the  offspring.  We  have  justification  for 
this  view  from  the  fact  that  we  see  structure  arising  without  having 
any  assignable  cause,  but  we  never  find  functional  capacity  arising 
during  the  life  of  an  individual  except  through  use.  From  this  we 
see  that  the  inheritance  of  acquired  characters  means  use-inherit- 
ance, and  use-inheritance  means  the  inheritance  of  acquired  func- 
tional capacity. 

It  is  from  this  standpoint  of  the  inheritance  of  acquired  func- 
tional capacity  that  we  will  investigate  the  subject  of  the  transmis- 
sion of  acquired  characters,  and  the  organ  selected  will  be  the  brain, 
because  the  brain  varies  more  widely  in  power  than  any  other  organ. 
It  is  only  necessary  to  compare  the  brain  of  a  Humboldt  with  the 
brain  of  an  ordinary  mental  incompetent  to  see  how  great  may  be 
the  difference  in  functional  capacity  when  the  difference  in  size  is 
slight. 

THE   LAW    OF   PROBABILITIES. 

If  the  Weismannian  theory  be  true  in  that  part  which  says  that 
ancestral  use  is  absolutely  without  effect  upon  descendants,  and  that 
variations  arise  fortuitously  within  the  germ  plasm,  then  advan- 
tageous and  disadvantageous  variations  will  occur  according  to  the 
law  of  probabilities.  Thus,  if  we  take  one  thousand  births  as  they 


62  BASIS    OF   INVESTIGATION. 

occur  chronologically,  or  take  them  in  any  other  manner  that  does 
not  partake  of  selection  in  the  biological  sense,  and  from  this  one 
thousand  determine  the  kind  and  extent  of  variations,  then  the 
standard  so  established  will  be  a  very  accurate  index  of  the  kind 
and  extent  of  variations  in  any  other  one  thousand  births  selected 
from  any  class  of  people  in  any  part  of  the  world.  It  would  be  as 
true  for  the  lower  class  as  for  the  higher  class,  because  the  extent 
of  variation  arising  at  a  birth  would  be  measured  from  the  class  in 
which  the  birth  occurred,  and  there  is  no  reason  for  thinking  that 
variations  would  occur  more  frequently  in  one  class  than  in  an- 
other. In  nine-tenths  of  the  cases  the  variations  would  be  very 
slight  and  not  depart  from  the  ancestral  standard  in  a  noticeable  de- 
gree. In  one-tenth  the  variations  would  be  quite  noticeable  and 
would  be  divided  equally  between  variations  above  and  variations 
below  the  ancestral  standard.  In  one  case  in  one  hundred  the  va- 
riation would  be  great,  and  in  one  in  one  thousand  the  variation 
would  be  extraordinary.  Variations  in  one  direction  are  usually 
followed  by  variations  in  the  opposite  direction,  so  that  a  class  of 
people  having  a  given  standard  of  mental  power  will  persist  in 
maintaining  that  standard  through  many  generations. 

DIFFERENT   CLASSES. 

When,  in  any  community,  there  exist  two  classes  of  individuals, 
if  one  class  increase  in  numbers  faster  than  the  other  class,  either 
through  earlier  marriages,  more  prolific  marriages,  or  both,  then 
it  is  only  a  question  of  time  when  the  rapidly  increasing  class  will 
absorb  the  less  rapidly  increasing  one.  This  may  be  illustrated  by 
a  few  figures.  Assuming  a  community  composed  of  one  thousand 
blacks,  and  one  thousand  whites,  if  the  whites  increase  in  numbers 
at  the  rate  of  ten  per  cent  during  each  decade,  and  the  blacks  increase 


BASIS   OF   INVESTIGATION. 


at  the  rate  of  twenty  per  cent,  then  at  the  end  of  fifty-year  periods 

the  population  will  stand  as  follows: 


Years. 
o  

Whites. 
10  per  cent. 
i  ooo 

Blacks. 
20  per  cent. 
Iooo 

50.  . 

1  610 

2/i88 

I  OO  

2  ZQ1 

^2,400 

6    TO? 

ISO.  . 

^>jyo 
4177 

,1^ 

T  C  /(  TO 

200  

j1// 
6  727 

10>41U 

oQ  Tfin 

250.  . 

u>/^/ 

TO  8^O 

JO,1UU 
OC  3OO 

^oo.  . 

I7.4SO 

yo>oyu 

277.7CO 

This  shows  that  at  the  end  of  three  hundred  years  the  rapidly 
increasing-  blacks  would  be  13.6  times  as  numerous  as  the  slowly 
increasing  whites.  But  a  time  comes  in  each  community  when 
the  population  cannot  further  increase,  or  can  only  increase  slowly. 
This  stoppage  of  numerical  increase  takes  place  gradually,  and  is 
assumed  to  first  affect  those  which  are  normally  less  prolific,  so 
that  before  the  time  when  increase  ceases  for  the  community,  the 
less  prolific  have  begun  to  decrease  if  they  have  not  become  wholly 
extinct. 

LOWER  CLASSES  MOST  PROLIFIC. 

In  the  civilized  communities  of  Europe  and  America  there 
exist  two  classes  of  people,  known  respectively  as  the  intelligent 
or  upper  class,  and  the  ignorant  or  lower  class.  There  is  no  dis- 
tinct line  of  demarkation  between  them,  as  they  grade  into  each 
other  through  innumerable  intermediate  degrees.  Yet  we  all  recog- 
nize these  two  classes  by  the  intellectual  power  of  the  individuals 
which  compose  them.  While  there  is  no  natural  line  of  division 
between  them  we  may,  for  convenience,  draw  an  arbitrary  line  and 


64  BASIS   OF   INVESTIGATION. 

say  that  one-third  of  the  population  belongs  to  the  upper  class  and 
two-thirds  belongs  to  the  lower  class.  Common  observation  and 
the  statistics  of  marriages,  births  and  deaths  tell  us  that  the  ignor- 
ant, the  vicious,  and  the  mentally  incompetent  individuals  of  a  com- 
munity marry  early  and  rear  large  families,  while  the  intelligent 
and  desirable  members  of  society  marry  late  and  have  few  offspring. 
The  result  of  this  is  that  the  descendants  of  the  ignorant  class  are 
becoming  relatively  more  numerous  and  threaten  to  supplant  the 
descendants  of  the  intelligent  class. 

PROPOSED  RESTRICTIONS   INADEQUATE. 

There  is  nothing  new  in  this  illustration  of  the  relative  rates  of 
increase  of  the  inferior  and  superior  classes  of  society.  The  subject 
has  been  treated  upon  by  many  writers.  Galton  and  Haycraft  see 
in  this  rapid  propagation  of  the  less  desirable  class  of  people  a 
serious  menace  to  the  future  of  the  race,  and  in  fact  conclude  that 
the  race  is  degenerating  at  the  present  moment.  They  both  argue, 
as  do  others,  that  there  should  be  a  restriction  and  control  of  child- 
bearing  as  the  only  means  of  checking  this  downward  tendency. 
This  may  be  considered  as  an  ideal  plan  for  race  improvement,  but 
it  is  not  a  practical  one  in  the  present  state  of  civilization.  If  the 
race  be  now  deteriorating  the  plan  will  be  still  less  practical  in  the 
future,  while  if  it  be  not  deteriorating,  then  there  is  no  occasion  for 
the  remedy. 

The  statistics  which  show  that  the  lower  classes  of  society  repro- 
duce more  rapidly  than  the  higher  and  more  advanced  classes  are 
simply  a  modern  demonstration  of  a  process  that  has  been  going  on 
for  several  centuries.  The  proof  of  this  is  abundant.  We  have  only 
to  compare  the  known  multiplication  of  the  race  with  the  fact  that 
a  very  large  part  of  the  eminent  men  of  the  last  two  centuries  left 


BACON    [52] 
The  Philosopher 


BISMARCK  [44] 
The  Statesman 


SHAKESPEARE   [36?] 
The  Poet 


ALEXANDER  THE  GREAT  [26] 
The  Conqueror 


HUMBOLDT  [49] 


CUVIER   [52] 


DARWIN  [43] 


HUXLEY  [45?] 


BASIS   OF   INVESTIGATION.  65 

no  descendants  at  all,  and  of  those  who  did  very  many  had  sons  who 
fell  far  below  their  fathers  in  the  functional  capacity  of  their  brains. 

DEDUCTION   FROM   WEISMANN^S  THEORY. 

From  the  standpoint  that  all  variations  arise  fortuitously  in  the 
germ  plasm,  we  have  the  deduction  that  if  this  be  so,  then  variations 
occur  according  to  the  law  of  probabilities,  and  a  class  which  is 
inferior  in  mental  capacity  will  remain  inferior,  while  a  class  which 
is  superior  will  remain  superior.  With  this  we  have  the  fact  that 
what  we  know  as  the  inferior  class  is,  and  has  for  a  long  time  been, 
reproducing  itself  more  rapidly  than  the  superior  class.  From  these 
two  elements  there  is  but  one  deduction,  and  that  is  that  the  race 
has  been  deteriorating  for  several  centuries,  and  that  the  mental 
capacity  of  the  men  living  today  is  less  than  that  of  the  men  who 
lived  one,  two,  or  three  centuries  ago. 

THE   RECORD  OF  HISTORY. 

But  this  deduction  is  directly  and  flatly  contradicted  by  history. 
The  record  of  the  nineteenth  century  shows  that  the  mental  achieve- 
ments of  its  men  were  greater  than  those  of  all  other  centuries  com- 
bined. The  record  of  the  eighteenth  century  shows  that  its  men 
were  greater  than  those  of  its  predecessors  and  only  second  to  those 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  "Professor  Broca  found  that  skulls  from 
graves  in  Paris  of  the  nineteenth  century  were  larger  than  those 
from  the  vaults  of  the  twelfth  century,  in  the  proportion  of  1,484  to 
i,426.'51  This  is  an  increase  in  brain  size  of  more  than  four  per 
cent  and  indicates  a  very  much  larger  increase  in  mental  power. 

From  a  premise  containing  two  elements,  we  have  a  deduction 
which  is  proved  to  be  false,  hence  at  least  one  of  these  elements 


(i)     Descent  of  Man,  p.  140. 


66  BASIS    OF    INVESTIGATION. 

must  itself  be  false,  and  the  indications  are  that  the  falsity  lies  with 
the  assumption  that  variations  occur  only  fortuitously  in  the  germ 
plasm. 

GREECE  AND   ROME. 

It  has  been  shown  that  the  theory  of  use-inheritance  means  the 
inheritance  of  acquired  functional  capacity.  If  this  theory  be  true, 
then  a  continuous  education  from  generation  to  generation  should 
cause  the  men  of  each  succeeding  generation  to  have  greater  mental 
power  than  those  of  the  preceding  generation,  and  a  cessation  of 
education  should  cause  descendants  to  decline  in  mental  power. 
History  gives  us  several  instances  of  such  series  of  educated  genera- 
tions. We  find  in  Greece  the  first  case  in  which  the  record  is  suffi- 
ciently accurate  to  enable  us  to  compare  it  with  the  theory  of  use- 
inheritance.  The  inhabitants  of  ancient  Greece  were  divided  into 
two  classes,  slaves  and  their  masters.  All  common  labor  being  per- 
formed by  the  slaves,  the  ruling  class  was  left  free  for  its  members 
to  use  their  time  in  education,  polities  and  war,  all  three  of  which 
had  a  tendency  to  develop  their  mental  powers.  At  what  time  edu- 
cation became  general  among  the  ruling  class  is  uncertain.  Homer 
lived  about  900  B.  C,  and  the  fact  that  his  poems  have  come  down 
to  us  indicates  some  kind  of  record  at  that  early  date.  The  first 
date  at  which  the  chronology  of  Greece  becomes  definite  is  776  B.  C. 
At  about  650  B.  C.  there  was  already  in  existence  a  reading  class 
of  people,  though  the  class  at  that  time  was  not  extensive.  From, 
this  time  on  the  ruling  class  seems  to  have  been  regularly  educated 
at  schools  kept  by  the  men  most  famous  for  their  learning.  In  any 
list  of  famous  Greeks  we  find  the  greatest  number  of  them,  and  the 
men  of  greatest  ability,  located  in  the  century  between  425  and  325 
B.  C,  and  we  find  that  this  culmination  was  gradually  reached  in 


BASIS   OF   INVESTIGATION.  67 

a  manner  that  corresponds  exactly  with  our  deduction  from  the 
theory  of  use-inheritance. 

In  the  case  of  Rome  we  find  the  same  education  accompanied 
by  the  gradual  increase  in  number  and  ability  of  her  great  men.  In 
Rome  the  educational  rise  commenced  somewhat  later  than  in 
Greece  and  culminated  soon  after  the  beginning  of  the  Christian 
era. 

THE  DARK  AGES. 

For  about  a  thousand  years  after  the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire 
there  was  in  Europe  no  education  of  the  masses,  and  no  education 
of  any  kind  except  a  little  attained  by  the  clergy.  As  priests  were 
forbidden  to  marry  and  consequently  left  no  offspring,  or  at  least 
were  not  supposed  to  leave  any,  there  was  no  possibility  of  use- 
inheritance  through  ancestral  education.  The  almost  total  absence 
of  any  intellectual  achievements  during  this  thousand  years  shows 
that  there  was  nothing  produced  which  could  be  referred  to  as  use- 
inheritance.  In  other  words,  the  absence  of  use  and  the  absence  of 
anything  that  could  be  called  use-inheritance  go  together  for  a  thou- 
sand  years. 

In  the  fourteenth  century  the  revival  of  learning  began,  and  uni- 
versities were  founded  at  Lyons,  Avignon,  Orleans,  Perugia,  Hei- 
delberg, Coimbra  and  Vienna.  In  the  fifteenth  century  we  have  the 
invention  of  printing,  and  thereafter  we  have  a  continually  increas- 
ing amount  of  education  diffused,  first  through  the  ruling  classes, 
and  afterwards  gradually  extending  to  the  masses.  The  theory  of 
use-inheritance  demands  that  accompanying  this  there  should  be  an 
increasing  number  of  persons  having  considerable  mental  ability,, 
and  that  mental  ability  should  rise  to  higher  and  higher  levels  as 
the  centuries  pass. 


68 


BASIS    OF    INVESTIGATION. 


RECORD  OF  THE  CENTURIES. 

In  the  back  part  of  the  fourth  volume  of  the  Encyclopedic  Dic- 
tionary (edition  of  1895)  there  is  a  "Pronouncing  Dictionary  of 
Biography,"  containing  about  nine  thousand  names.  As  the  list 
contains  the  names  Smith,  Jones  and  Brown,  it  is  evident  that  ' 'pro- 
nouncing" is  not  the  criterion  by  which  names  are  included  or  ex- 
cluded, but  that  there  are  included  the  names  of  those  who  have 
achieved  greatness  by  some  means  or  other.  Opposite  each  name  is 
the  date  of  birth  and  death  as  far  as  known.  To  determine  how  far 


// 


77 


37? 


t/t 


// 


FIG.  1.     DISTRIBUTION  OF  EMINENT  MEN  GIVEN  IN  PRONOUNCING 
DICTIONARY. 

this  list  of  eminent  men  would  confirm  or  contradict  the  theory  of 
use-inheritance  as  applied  to  modern  Europe,  I  tabulated  the  entire 
list  by  their  births,  arranging  them  in  centuries.  The  result  of  this 
tabulation  is  given  in  Fig.  i. 

This  diagram  shows  that  before  the  revival  of  learning  Europe 
produced  very  few  men  who  were  eminent  enough  to  have  their 
names  preserved  in  a  Pronouncing  Dictionary  of  Biography,  while 
immediately  following  the  revival  the  number  increased  rapidly  and 


BASIS   OF   INVESTIGATION.  69 

continued  to  increase  from  generation  to  generation.  An  examin- 
ation of  the  list  also  shows  that,  of  those  belonging  to  the  period 
prior  to  the  fifteenth  century,  the  majority  are  entitled  to  have  their 
names  in  this  list  only  from  the  fact  that  they  were  hereditary  mon- 
archs,  or  princes  who  became  involved  in  some  of  the  wars  of  the 
period.  On  the  other  hand,  the  majority  of  those  included  in  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  have  their  names  included  be- 
cause they  exhibited  great  mental  power. 

ONE  HUNDRED  GREATEST  MEN. 

In  1900  Charles  Denby,  former  United  States  Minister  to 
China,  and  John  Q.  Howard,  of  the  Library  of  Congress,  joined  in 
compiling  a  list  of  the  one  hundred  greatest  men  in  the  world's  his- 
tory. The  list  begins  with  Homer  and  ends  with  Edison,  thus  cov- 
ering a  period  of  2,800  years.  I  have  subjected  this  list  to  the  same 
test  so  as  to  locate  the  men  of  greatest  intellect.  In  the  first  1,200 
years  of  this  time  there  were  fifteen  men,  being  Greeks  and  Romans. 
In  the  next  1,200  years  there  are  twelve  men,  being  one  in  each  cen- 
tury except  the  eleventh,  which  has  two,  and  the  twelfth,  which  has 
none.  Of  these  twelve  men,  all  but  Alfred  the  Great,  Gutenberg 
and  Dante,  are  either  religious  reformers  or  soldiers.  These  three 
are  the  only  representatives  of  statesmanship,  invention  and  litera- 
ture in  twelve  centuries.  In  the  remaining  four  centuries  we  have 
seventy-three  men,  fifty-three  of  whom  come  in  the  classes  of  states- 
manship, science,  invention  and  literature.  Of  the  one  hundred 
greatest  men  in  the  world's  history,  we  have  seventy-three  per  cent 
of  them  concentrated  in  one-seventh  of  the  time,  and  that  one-sev- 
enth is  located  at  the  place  where  use-inheritance  calls  for  it  to  be 
located. 


7O  BASIS   OF   INVESTIGATION. 

EDUCATION    IN    ENGLAND   AND    SCOTLAND. 

On  page  125  of  "Darwinism  and  Race  Progress,"  Haycraft 
says: 

"The  doors  of  every  profession  were  barred  except  to  those  who 
possessed  capital,  and  the  children  of  the  poor  were  frequently  un- 
able to  obtain  even  the  elements  of  book  knowledge,  except  in  Scot- 
land, where  primary  education  had  the  start  of  England  by  three 
hundred  years," 

Two  pages  further  on  he  says : 

"One  can  hardly  explain,  on  the  assumption  of  race  superiority 
alone,  the  wonderful  potentiality  of  the  Scottish  Lowlands,  the 
birthplace  of  so  many  who  have  been  distinguished  for  personal 
attainments,  for  the  East  Coast  Englishman  is  the  same  blood  as 
the  Lowlander,  and  the  division  between  England  and  Scotland  is 
by  no  means  an  ethnological  one ;  it  is,  rather,  a  political  division  of 
the  old  Kingdom  of  Northumberland." 

And  yet  Professor  Haycraft  denies  the  existence  of  use-inheri- 
tance and  attempts  to  explain  this  on  the  fortuitous  nature  of  oppor- 
tunities. Galton,  who  has  made  a  special  study  of  human  heredity, 
and  who  is  perhaps  the  first  person  to  deny  use-inheritance,  tells  us 
that  when  a  man  is  born  with  tremendous  intellectual  power,  the 
lack  of  opportunities  is  nothing.  He  will  make  his  opportunities. 

EDUCATION   IN    AMERICA. 

The  same  distinction  that  Professor  Haycraft  mentions  between 
Scotland  and  England  has  existed  in  the  United  States  between  the 
North  and  South.  When  the  Pilgrims  landed  on  the  inhospitable 
coast  of  New  England  they  immediately  planted  the  "little  red 
school  house,"  and  never  since  have  they  failed  to  maintain  it,  nor 
have  they  failed  to  supplement  it  with  colleges  and  universities.  In 


BASIS   OF   INVESTIGATION.  7! 

the  South  an  exactly  opposite  policy  was  pursued,  except  in  the  case 
of  a  few  who  were  slave-holders.  In  1671,  when  the  population  of 
Virginia  was  estimated  at  40,000,  Sir  William  Berkeley,  the  then 
governor,  wrote: 

"I  thank  God  there  are  no  free  schools  nor  printing,  and  I  hope 
we  shall  not  have  these  hundred  years;  for  learning  has  brought 
disobedience  and  heresy  and  sects  into  the  world,  and  printing  has 
divulged  them,  and  libels  against  the  best  government.  God  keep  us 
from  both."  Of  the  great  men  produced  in  the  United  States,  very 
few  indeed  have  come  from  the  South,  and  those  who  have  come 
from  there  have  had  ancestries  which  were  exceptions  to  the  general 
rule.  An  invention  is  the  product  of  a  mind  capable  of  moving  un- 
aided through  unexplored  realms.  It  is  an  evidence  of  intellectual 
power  and  is  largely  independent  of  the  educational  opportuni- 
ties of  the  individual  who  made  it.  The  inventions  produced  in  the 
Northern  and  Southern  portions  of  the  United  States  are  a  very 
good  index  of  the  mental  ability  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  two  sec- 
tions. In  the  South  there  is  annually  produced  one  invention  for 
each  17,000  of  the  population;  in  the  Northern  states  the  produc- 
tion is  annually  ten  inventions  for  each  17,000,  and  in  Connecticut 
it  is  nineteen.  And  yet  the  people  of  the  South  are  of  the  same 
stock  as  those  from  the  North.  The  ancestors  of  both  came  from 
England.  If  there  was  any  original  difference  in  the  mental  powers 
of  the  two,  that  difference  was  in  favor  of  the  Southern  immigrants. 
It  is  true  that  England  dumped  some  of  her  pauper  stock  on  Vir- 
ginia in  the  seventeenth  century,  but  the  "F.  F.  Vs."  also  contained 
such  men  as  Washington,  the  Randolphs,  the  Lees,  and  the  Mar- 
shalls,  families  which  had  achieved  fame  before  coming  to  America, 
and  which  were  the  peers  of  anything  that  New  England  could 
show. 


72  BASIS   OF   INVESTIGATION. 

EXPLANATION   OF    NEO-DARWINIANS. 

We  thus  see  that  our  deduction  from  the  theory  of  use-inheri- 
tance is  supported  by  history  at  all  points.  But  the  Neo-Darwinians 
object  to  this  interpretation  of  history.  They  insist  that  education 
goes  no  further  than  to  furnish  opportunities  for  the  mind  which 
is  potentially  great  to  educate  itself  and  thus  become  great  in  fact. 
This  explanation  would  imply  that  congenitally  great  intellects  were 
just  as  common  during  the  dark  ages  as  at  present,  and  that  the 
reason  why  we  have  no  record  of  them  is  partly  because  of  the  lack 
of  records  and  partly  because  the  lack  of  education  robbed  many  of 
them  of  their  opportunities.  But  this  explanation  of  the  Neo-Dar- 
winians does  not  account  for  the  advance  in  relative  greatness  after 
educational  facilities  were  obtained.  Neither  does  it  account  for  a 
man  like  Franklin,  who  had  no  educational  facilities  other  than  such 
as  he  made  for  himself.  Nor  does  it  account  for  the  fact,  which  will 
be  shown  later,  that  there  never  has  been  produced  a  brain  having 
a  great  functional  capacity  except  as  a  descendant  from  a  man  who 
had  previously  made  large  use  of  his  brain. 

WEISMANN'S  STATEMENT. 

The  explanation,  however,  is  forced  by  the  theory  of  continuity 
of  the  germ  plasm  and  the  apparent  impossibility  of  such  a  thing  as 
brain-use  affecting  in  the  remotest  degree  a  material  so  completely 
isolated.  Weismann  says: 

"The  germ  cells  arise  in  their  essential  and  distinctive  substances, 
not  by  any  means  from  the  body  of  the  individual,  but  directly  from 
the  parent  germ  cells.  Inheritance  takes  place  wholly  and  solely 
because  a  substance  of  definite  chemical,  and  above  all,  molecular 
composition,  passes  over  from  the  germ  cells  of  one  generation  to 


BASIS    OF    INVESTIGATION.  73 

those  of  the  next.  This  substance,  the  germ  plasm,  is  located  in  the 
cell-nucleus,  and  possesses,  by  virtue  of  its  extraordinary  complex- 
ity of  structure,  the  capacity  to  develop  into  a  very  complex  organ- 
ism. The  germ  cells  of  successive  generations  are  related  in  the 
same  way  as  a  series  of  generations  of  unicellular  beings  which  are 
derived,  one  from  another,  by  continued  divisions." 

Weismann's  statements  are  quite  positive  and  he  is  probably  as 
competent  as  any  one  to  speak  of  the  elements  and  origin  of  germ- 
plasm,  but  when  his  theories  in  regard  to  them  force  an  explanation 
which  is  inconsistent  with  known  facts  we  cannot  do  otherwise  but 
consider  such  an  explanation  unsatisfactory. 


CHAPTER  IV. 
BASIS  OF  INVESTIGATION,  CONTINUED. 

In  investigating  the  origin  of  great  men,  the  first  noticeable 
thing  is  that  they  are  usually  sons  of  prominent  men.  At  this 
point  investigators,  knowing  the  facts  of  inheritance,  jump  to  the 
conclusion  that  superior  men  are  produced  only  from  superior  an- 
cestry and  inferior  men  only  from  inferior  ancestry,  irrespective  of 
the  fact  that  both  had  common  ancestors  some  generations  back. 
This  common  ancestry  of  superior  and  inferior  men  is  well  shown  in 
the  cases  of  Cromwell  and  Charles  I,  who  were  distant  cousins.  Of 
course  there  is  the  explanation  that  the  remote  ancestor  is  repre- 
sented in  a  very  small  measure  in  the  two  descendants,  that  on  one 
side  there  were  intermarriages  with  superior,  and  on  the  other  side 
with  inferior  persons,  and  that  spontaneous  variations  in  the  germ 
cells  made  up  the  difference.  As  there  is  no  evidence  that  the  col- 
lateral branch  going  to  Cromwell  married  persons  superior  to 
those  which  the  royal  line  secured,  we  have  assumption  upon  as- 
sumption made  necessary  by  deduction  from  an  elaborate  theory  re- 
garding mysterious  occurrences  in  the  germ  cells. 

USE  AND  DISUSE  DEFINED. 

The  word  use,  in  a  biological  sense,  means  an  amount  of  use 
greater  than  enough  to  bring  an  individual  to,  and  maintain  it  at, 
the  average  functional  capacity  of  the  race  or  species  to  which  it 
belongs;  while  the  word  disuse  means  an  amount  of  use  less  than 
enough  to  bring  the  individual  to,  and  maintain  it  at,  such  a  stan- 
dard. Use  and  disuse  are,  therefore,  relative  and  not  absolute  terms. 

74 


BASIS   OF   INVESTIGATION.  75 

The  amount  of  use  necessary  to  bring  the  individual  to,  and  main- 
tain it  at,  the  average  functional  capacity  of  the  species  to  which  it 
belongs  may  be  called  average  use,  and  the  amount  necessary  for 
any  particular  individual  may  be  called  normal  use.  Before  an  in- 
dividual can  arrive  at  the  average  functional  capacity  of  the  species 
to  which  it  belongs  it  must  have  passed  from  the  adolescent  to  the 
adult  stage.  The  distance  into  the  adult  stage  which  an  individual 
must  pass  to  arrive  at  the  average  for  its  species  depends  partly  upon 
its  inherited  functional  capacity  and  partly  upon  the  degree  of  its 
functional  activity.  Hence  the  acquired  functional  capacity  of  an 
individual  is  represented  by  the  absolute  use  minus  the  normal  use. 
In  this  connection  it  should  be  remembered  that  the  normal  use  for 
a  particular  individual  is  not  a  fixed  aggregate  of  use,  but  varies 
with  the  age  of  the  individual.  Thus,  after  an  individual  has  ar- 
rived at  the  average  functional  capacity  of  its  species  it  must  con- 
tinue its  normal  use  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  itself  at  this 
standard.  If  the  individual  fails  to  continue  this  normal  use  it  falls 
below  the  standard  and  we  have  a  case  of  disuse.  Ordinarily  the 
normal  use  and  the  average  use  do  not  differ  much,  but,  when  an 
individual  possesses  an  organ  endowed  by  heredity  with  great  func- 
tional capacity  the  normal  use  is  much  less  than  the  average  use, 
and,  conversely,  when  an  individual  inherits  less  than  the  average 
functional  capacity  the  normal  use  becomes  greater  than  the  average 
use. 

THE    MEASURE    OF    USE-INHERITANCE. 

From  our  definition  of  the  word  use,  it  is  evident  that  to  have 
use-inheritance  in  a  descendant,  there  must  have  been,  on  the  part 
of  the  ancestor,  an  aggregate  use  greater  than  the  normal  use  for 
such  ancestor.  Stated  in  other  words,  use-inheritance  is  to  be  meas- 
ured by  the  amount  of  use  for  each  ancestor  and  not  by  the  aggre- 


76  BASIS    OF    INVESTIGATION. 

gate  use  in  a  given  period  of  time  and  independent  of  the  number  of 
ancestors  within  that  time.  This  may  be  made  still  clearer  by  re- 
membering that  use-inheritance  means  the  inheritance  of  acquired 
functional  capacity,  and  that  unless  an  individual  acquires  a  func- 
tional capacity  above  the  average  of  its  ancestors  it  will  not  have 
an  acquirement  which  it  can  transmit. 

As  use  really  means  surplus  use  on  the  part  of  the  individual, 
or  use  more  than  the  normal  use,  it  is  evident  that  the  functional 
capacity  acquired  by  use  is  made  up  of  two  factors,  viz.,  functional 
activity  of  the  individual  and  time.  We  may  assume  for  conven- 
ience that  the  capacity  acquired  is  proportional  to  the  time  occu- 
pied in  its  acquirement.  Thus  if  an  individual  acquire  m  capacity 
in  time  t,  then  capacity  2m  will  be  acquired  in  time  2t.  While  not 
strictly  true,  this  is  approximately  true  during  the  period  within 
which  the  individual  may  continue  to  acquire  functional  capacity. 

AGE  AT   COMPLETE   DEVELOPMENT. 

Under  uniform  conditions  the  healthy  man  usually  attains  his 
best  physical  development  between  twenty-five  and  thirty,  and  main- 
tains it  to  some  time  between  forty  and  fifty.  Occasionally  he  comes 
to  physical  maturity  at  an  earlier  age,  and  sometimes  he  retains  his 
strength  beyond  fifty  and  even  beyond  sixty.  Under  conditions 
which  are  not  uniform  he  may,  by  physical  training  at  a  particu- 
lar time,  reach  his  greatest  development  at  any  age  between  twenty- 
five  and  sixty,  or  even  seventy.  When  a  man  who  has  passed  the 
age  of  twenty-five  takes  up  systematic  physical  culture,  the  func- 
tional capacity  of  his  muscles  will  develop  rapidly  under  the  stimu- 
lus of  muscular  activity.  Within  a  few  months  or  a  year  he  reaches 
a  physical  strength  and  development  beyond  which  further  training 
will  not  carry  him.  In  this  we  have  a  case  of  use  consisting  of 


BASIS    OF    INVESTIGATION.  77 

extreme  functional  activity  carried  on  through  a  considerable  period 
of  time.  If,  after  acquiring  physical  development  through  special 
training,  he  desists  from  further  exercise,  his  strength  and  activity 
will  drop  away  rapidly  and  to  a  considerable  extent.  Then  we  would 
have  a  case  of  use  followed  by  disuse.  The  amount  in  which 
strength  will  fall  away  by  disuse  will  depend  upon  the  length  of 
time  during  which  training  was  continued.  If  training  be  con- 
tinued for  only  a  short  time,  then  strength  would  fall  away  rapidly, 
while  if  continued  a  long  time  it  would  fall  away  less  rapidly  and 
to  a  less  extent. 

GROWTH   OF  THE  BRAIN. 

The  growth  and  development  of  the  brain  are  similar  to  those 
of  the  IxDdy,  but  are  continued  for  a  much  longer  time.  The  brain 
differs  from  the  body  in  that  its  functional  capacity  may  be  enor- 
mously increased  without  apparent  increase  in  its  size.  For  what 
length  of  time  the  brain  continues  to  grow  in  size  is  uncertain,  but 
it  appears  that  the  time  is  extended  and  the  brain  is  made  more 
capacious  by  intellectual  activity.  In  Fig.  2  I  give  Galton's  dia- 
gram of  brain  growth  as  determined  by  him  from  students  at  the 
University  of  Cambridge,  England.  The  original  diagram  is  lim- 
ited to  twenty-five  years  of  age,  but  I  have  extended  it  by  dotted 
lines  to  thirty-three,  to  illustrate  the  probable  growth  to  that  period. 
From  personal  observation  I  find  that  in  spite  of  my  hair  growing 
thin  I  wear  a  slightly  larger  hat  than  I  found  necessary  at  the  age  of 
thirty.  From  this  it  would  appear  that  either  hats  have  grown 
smaller  or  the  growth  of  the  brain  continues  beyond  thirty.  The 
functional  capacity,  however,  continues  to  increase  long  after  the 
limit  of  size  is  attained.  Time  is,  therefore,  an  important  element 
in  brain  development,  and  it  becomes  evident  that  there  can  be 


BASIS   OF   INVESTIGATION. 


no  appearance  of  use-inheritance  applied  to  brain  power  unless  the 
parent  has  lived  many  years  before  reproducing. 

The  dependence  and  relationship  of  acquired  functional  capac- 
ity of  the  brain  upon  time  is  recognized  and  may  be  illustrated  in 
many  ways.  In  common  law  the  individual  is  not  supposed  to  know 
enough  to  take  care  of  himself  before  twenty-one.  The  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States  says  he  is  not  eligible  to  become  a  Rep- 


*s* 


SL3°   ,  i,       J* 

AGES.  W       4.X     <W        *&       <*£       3°       j£*> 

PIG.   2.     GALTON'S  DIAGRAM   (EXPANDED)    OF   BRAIN   GROWTH. 

resentative  before  twenty-five,  is  not  competent  to  be  a  Senator  until 
thirty,  and  not  wise  enough  to  be  President  until  thirty-five. 

HYPOTHETICAL   COMMUNITY. 

Let  us  assume  a  mining  camp  with  one  hundred  men  whose  ages 
vary  from  twenty  to  thirty,  the  majority  of  whom  have  more  than 
ordinary  native  intelligence,  and  many  of  whom  have  had  the  bene- 
fits of  a  college  education;  let  us  assume,  also,  that  there  comes  to 
this  community  a  man  of  fair  intelligence,  who  is  fifty  years  of  age, 
who  had  in  his  youth  only  limited  opportunities  for  education,  but 
who  has  had  a  wide  experience  in  many  parts  of  the  world  under 


BASIS   OF   INVESTIGATION.  79 

many  diverse  circumstances;  then,  in  our  hypothetical  community 
this  older  man  will  immediately  become  the  most  prominent  man 
there.  He  will  know  better  than  any  one  else  what  to  do  and  how 
to  do  it.  He  will  be  the  arbitrator  in  disputes  and  probably  will 
become  the  Justice  of  the  Peace  or  the  first  Mayor  of  the  embryo 
town.  All  this  will  be  because  his  years  have  developed  his  brain 
so  that  it  has  a  greater  functional  capacity  than  the  brains  of  his 
associates.  According  to  the  theory  of  use-inheritance  this  man 
could,  from  a  given  mother,  beget  a  more  intelligent  son  than  could 
any  other  man  in  the  hypothetical  community.  If  the  son  of  such 
a  man  should  become  eminent,  we  would  have  an  illustration  of  the 
ordinary  saying  that  eminent  men  are  the  sons  of  prominent  men. 
But  saying  that  an  eminent  man  is  the  son  of  a  prominent  man  is 
only  another  way  of  saying  that  he  is  the  son  of  an  educated  man, 
because  a  man  is  prominent  only  because  of  the  education  he  has 
acquired. 

PROMINENCE  DEFINED. 

A  prominent  man  is  one  whose  brain  has  great  functional  capac- 
ity. While  absorbing  facts  is  a  function  of  the  brain,  it  is  not  the 
particular  function  which  produces  prominence.  That  function  is 
the  power  of  using  known  facts  and  previous  experience  in  the  solu- 
tion of  any  problem  that  may  arise,  and  is  usually  designated  by  the 
words  judgment,  discretion,  and  intelligence. 

The  relative  development  of  the  body  and  the  brain  is  illus- 
trated diagrammatically  in  Fig.  3,  in  which  the  line  A  represents  the 
bodily  development,  B  the  development  of  the  brain,  and  C  the 
development  of  the  man  as  a  whole.  If  we  assume  that  these  lines 
represent  the  normal  development  of  a  healthy  man,  then  the  theory 
of  use-inheritance  would  say  that  his  child  with  the  best  physical 


So 


BASIS    OF   INVESTIGATION. 


constitution  would  be  born  when  he  was  thirty-five,  the  child  with 
the  best  brain  when  he  was  sixty,  and  the  best  all-around  child  when 
he  was  between  forty-five  and  fifty. 


Cup*.       2.0 

y 

FIG.  3.  DIAGRAM  OF  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  BRAIN  AND  BODY. 


FORMULA  FOR  HEREDITY. 

To  express  the  matter  mathematically  let  : 

T=age  of  ancestor  at  time  of  reproduction. 

t=average  age  of  reproduction  of  the  race. 

^r^age  at  which  ancestor  reaches  average  development  with  K 
activity. 

K=grade  of  mental  activity  of  ancestor. 

k=average  mental  activity  of  the  race. 

kx=:grade  of  mental  activity  required  to  maintain  ancestor  in 
uniform  condition. 

m—  change  arising  from  K-k  activity  in  a  unit  of  time. 

M=average  race  inheritance. 

Q=inheritance  of  any  individual. 

Then  :- 

CT-t1)      mCT-t1)      mCT-t1)      mlT-t1) 


2  4  8  16 

will  express  the  inheritance  of  an  individual  as  received  from  a  sin- 


?.£ 


*?•; 


W 


COPERNICUS  [(77+x)-r-2] 


BASIS   OF   INVESTIGATION.  8 1 

gle  line  of  ancestors.    If  all  of  the  ancestors  are  included  then  the 
equation  will  be 


=M+m  ( T-t1 )  +m  ( T-t1 


The  denominators  in  the  first  equation  represent  the  number  of  an- 
cestors in  that  generation.  When  all  of  the  ancestors  of  a  gen- 
eration are  included  the  denominator  of  that  term  disappears  and 
m(T-t1)  represents  the  average  of  them  all. 

EXPLANATION    OF   THE    FORMULA. 

In  any  particular  case  the  term  T  may  usually  be  determined 
from  the  biography  of  the  individual ;  t  may  be  determined  by  sta- 
tistics ;  t1  does  not  usually  differ  much  from  t}.  but  will  be  greater  or 
less  according  to  what  the  ancestor  inherited  from  his  ancestors; 
K  is  usually  an  unknown  quantity,  but  an  indication  of  its  relative 
value  may  sometimes  be  determined  from  biography ;  k  may  be  gen- 
erally estimated  from  known  conditions,  being  greater  for  Caucas- 
ians than  for  Chinese,  greater  for  Chinese  than  for  Negroes,  and 
greater  for  Negroes  than  for  Fuegians;  and  M  may  be  estimated 
in  the  same  manner  as  k.  Whether  the  individual  rises  above  or 
falls  below  the  average  of  the  race  depends  upon  two  factors,  of 
which  m  may  be  considered  as  unknown,  while  T-t1  may  be  calcu- 
lated. If  T  be  less  than  t1,  i.  e.,  if  reproduction  takes  place  at  ah 
early  age,  then  T-t1  will  be  a  minus  quantity  and  the  descendant 
will  fall  below  the  average.  If  T  be  larger  than  t1,  then  the  rise  or 
fall  will  depend  upon  whether  the  value  of  K  makes  m  an  increasing 
or  decreasing  quantity.  With  man  m  is  usually  an  increasing  quan- 
tity up  to  about  the  age  of  sixty.  It  will  therefore  be  apparent  that 
the  value  of  Q  will  be  largely  dependent  upon  the  value  of  T,  and 
that  it  cannot  be  large  unless  T  is  large. 


82  BASIS   OF   INVESTIGATION. 

RECAPITULATION. 

Use-inheritance  means  the  inheritance  of  acquired  functional 
capacity.  Before  there  can  be  such  an  inheritance  a  parent  must 
acquire  a  functional  capacity  above  the  average  of  the  species  to 
which  it  belongs.  The  acquirement  of  such  a  functional  capacity 
demands  a  functional  activity  above  the  normal.  To  have  the  func- 
tional capacity  large  the  functional  activity  must  have  continued  for 
a  considerable  time,  and  it  is  largest  when  the  activity  is  continued 
as  long  as  there  is  any  increase  in  capacity.  Applied  to  the  brain 
of  man,  the  amount  of  acquired  functional  capacity  would,  within 
limits,  be  proportional  to  the  length  of  time  devoted  to  its  acquire- 
ment, and  would  be  greatest  in  comparatively  old  men.  Hence,  if 
there  be  such  a  thing  as  the  inheritance  of  acquired  functional  capac- 
ity, it  should  be  most  marked  in  the  descendants  of  old  men,  and 
conversely,  if  it  can  be  shown  that  the  inherited  functional  capacity 
of  individuals  is  proportional  to  the  age  of  their  parents  at  the  time 
of  reproduction,  that  fact  would  be  evidence  of  the  inheritance  of 
such  acquirements.  Furthermore,  such  evidence,  if  obtained,  would 
not  be  explainable  on  any  other  theory  than  use-inheritance,  because 
there  is  no  other  imaginable  reason  why  great  men  should  only  be 
produced  by  old  fathers. 


CHAPTER  V. 

STANDARD  OF  COMPARISON. 

The  Hall  of  Fame  is  a  building  connected  with  the  New  York 
University,  and  was  erected  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  famous 
men  of  American  birth.  The  men  selected  to  have  their  names  in- 
scribed in  the  Hall  of  Fame  were  chosen  by  ballot,  the  electors  being 
one  hundred1  eminent  men — college  presidents,  educators,  professors 
of  history,  scientists,  publicists,  editors,  authors,  and  judges  of  the 
State  and  National  Supreme  Courts.  The  first  election,  held  in 
October,  1900,  resulted  in  the  choice  of  twenty-nine  men.  These 
twenty-nine  men  and  the  number  of  votes  each  received  are  as  fol- 
lows: 

George  Washington 97  Nathaniel  Hawthorne    73 

Abraham  Lincoln   96  George  Peabody 72 

Daniel    Webster    96  Robert  E.  Lee 69 

Benjamin    Franklin 94  Peter    Cooper   69 

Ulysses  S.  Grant 92  Eli  Whitney   67 

John    Marshall    91  John  J.  Audubon 67 

Thomas  Jefferson   ,  90  Horace  Mann   67 

Ralph  W.  Emerson 87  Henry  Ward  Beecher 66 

Henry  W.  Longfellow  ....  85  James  Kent 65 

Robert    Fulton    85  Joseph    Story   64 

Washington    Irving 83  John  Adams    61 

Jonathan  Edwards   81  William  E.  Channing 58 

Samuel  F.  B.  Morse 80  Gilbert  Stuart   52 

David  G.  Farragut 79  Asa    Gray   51 

Henry  Clay 74 

These  men,  selected  by  ballot  as  they  were,  may  be  considered 
as  America's  most  famous  men,  and  the  relative  measure  of  their 

(i)     Only  97  voted. 

83 


84  STANDARD  OF  COMPARISON. 

* 

fame  may  be  represented  by  the  respective  number  of  ballots  which 
they  received.  As  a  preliminary  to  our  investigation  I  have  chosen 
to  take  these  twenty-nine  men  and  apply  to  them  our  test  of  ances- 
tral use  as  it  will  appear  from  the  ages  at  which  reproduction  oc- 
curred. My  reason  for  choosing  to  begin  with  this  list  is  because 
I  find  it  already  made  up,  and  consequently  it  cannot  be  charged 
that  it  was  selected  with  reference  to  the  age  of  their  parents  at 
the  time  they  were  born.  Another  reason  is  that  I  can  trace  the 
ancestry  of  these  men  more  completely  than  I  can  that  of  any  simi- 
lar group  of  men  not  specially  selected  with  that  object  in  view, 
and  it  is  part  of  my  plan  to  trace  a  few  in  an  elaborate  manner  to 
serve  as  a  basis  for  the  larger  group  of  men  which  I  shall  discuss  in 
a  succeeding  chapter. 

SOURCE  OF  STANDARD  SCALE. 

It  is  one  thing  to  state  that  a  child's  parents  were  of  certain 
specified  ages  when  the  child  was  born,  and  quite  another  thing  to 
know  what  that  statement  means  after  it  is  made.  It  is  therefore 
evident  that  before  we  can  draw  any  just  conclusions  in  regard  to 
the  birth-ranks  of  these  men  we  must  establish  a  standard  by  which 
to  measure  them,  and  that  this  standard  must  not  only  tell  us  the 
average  age  of  parents  when  children  are  born,  but  must  give  us  a 
number  of  subdivisions  so  that  we  may  locate  each  individual  at 
his  proper  place  in  the  scale.  To  produce  such  a  standard  I  have 
taken  the  "Redfield  Genealogy"  (edition  of  1860),  and  have  cal- 
culated the  ages  of  parents  for  the  recorded  births  in  the  eighteenth 
century.  I  have  chosen  the  eighteenth  century  partly  because  the 
records  for  that  century  are  fairly  complete,  and  partly  because 
the  majority  of  these  famous  men  were  born  during  that  century. 
The  Redfields  born  at  that  time  were  mostly  born  in  Connecticut, 
or  in  substantially  the  latitude  of  Connecticut,  which  is  also  ap- 


STANDARD  OF  COMPARISON.  85 

proximately  the  latitude  in  which  the  majority  of  these  famous  men 
were  born.  If  there  be  any  difference,  the  Redfields  were  born 
slightly  further  north.  These  Redfields  were  neither  eminent 
statesmen  nor  day  laborers,  but  average  examples  of  New  England 
citizens.  They  were  largely  farmers,  with  a  sprinkling  of  mer- 
chants, sailors  and  professional  men.  Many  of  them,  like  other 
Americans  of  the  eighteenth  century,  married  early  and  produced 
large  families,  and  consequently  their  births  extended  over  a  wide 
range  and  exhibited  nearly  all  possible  combinations. 

HOW  STANDARD  SCALE  IS  MADE. 

In  making  up  my  standard  for  comparison  I  have  taken  only 
those  cases  in  which  the  family  record  was  complete,  and  have  ex- 
cluded every  family  in  which  one  or  more  births  could  not  be 
accurately  determined.  By  adding  a  few  births  occurring  in  the 
first  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  I  managed  to  obtain  the  ages 
of  the  fathers  for  240  births,  and  the  ages  of  the  mothers  for  180 
births.  I  then  divided  these  births  into  ten  equal  groups,  which  I 
tabulated  as  follows: 

TABLE  I. 

AGES   OF  PARENTS   AT   BIRTH   OF  THEIR   CHILDREN. 

(Ten  per  cent  in  each  class.) 

Fathers.  Class.  Mothers. 

Under  24-6   a Under  22-0 

Between  24-6    and  27-1    b Between  22-0    and  24-1 

"        27-1    and  28-1 1 c 24-1    and  25-9 

"        28-1 1  and  30-9   d 25-9    and  27-5 

"        309    and  32-8    e 27-5    and  29-2 

32-8    and  34-9   E 29-2    and  31-0 

34-9    and  37-3   D 31-0    and  33-7 

37-3    and  40-0   C 33-7    and  35-10 

40-0    and  44-6   B 35-10  and  39-10 

Over  44-6 A Over  39-10 


86  STANDARD  OF  COMPARISON. 

THE   MEANING  OF  BIRTH-RANK. 

This  table  shows  that  ten  per  cent  of  the  children  were  born 
when  their  fathers  were  less  than  24  years  and  6  months  old,  that 
ten  per  cent  were  born  after  the  fathers  were  24  years  and  6  months 
old  and  before  they  had  reached  the  age  of  27  years  and  i  month, 
and  that  the  other  sections  of  ten  per  cent  each  came  between  the 
ages  specified, — the  last  ten  per  cent  being  children  of  fathers  over 
44  years  and  6  months  of  age.  For  mothers,  ten  per  cent  were  born 
before  the  mothers  were  22  years  old,  and  ten  per  cent  after  they 
were  39  years  and  10  months  of  age.  The  extreme  ages  of  fathers 
range  from  19  years  to  65  years,  and  for  mothers  the  range  is  from 
1 6  years  to  45  years.  I  have  designated  these  classes  by  letters  so 
that  the  earliest  born  ten  per  cent  is  represented  by  a  and  the  latest 
ten  per  cent  by  A.  The  next  per  cent  in  order  from  either  end 
of  the  scale  is  represented  by  b  or  B  as  the  case  may  be,  and  so  on, 
— corresponding  sections  being  represented  by  corresponding  small 
and  capital  letters.  A  person  born  when  his  father  was  33  years 
old  will  be  spoken  of  as  being  born  in  class  E.  I  shall  also  speak 
of  such  a  person  as  having  the  "birth-rank  E"  or  the  "birth-rank 
•33,"  the  two  terms  being  used  interchangeably.  John  Smith  [42] 
will  means  that  John  Smith  was  born  when  his  father  was  42  years 
x>ld  and  consequently  that  John  Smith's  birth  rank  is  42. 

SUBDIVISIONS  OF  SCALE. 

Prom  the  nature  of  our  investigation  it  will  be  evident  that  the 
two  extremes  of  our  scale  are  the  most  important,  the  intermediate 
portions  being  more  or  less  indifferent  or  neutral.  I  have  therefore 
subdivided  the  classes  a  and  A  as  follows : 


STANDARD  OF  COMPARISON.  87 


5  per  cent  of  births  are  to  fathers  over  51-0 — A2 
2       "        "       "          "        "         «      57-o—A3 
5       "        "       "          "        "      under  23-0—  a2 
2       "        "       "          "        "         "      21-4— a? 


SCALE  TESTED. 

Dr.  Duncan2  gives  the  ages  of  mothers  for  16,385  births  as 
determined  at  the  Dublin  Lying-in  Hospital  between  1850  and  1860, 
and  also  the  ages  of  mothers  for  16,301  births  as  registered  in 
Edinburg  and  Glasgow  in  1855.  He  also  gives3  a  similar  record 
for  Finland  and  Sweden,  with  the  exception  that  in  the  last  case  the 
births  are  the  total  for  the  whole  population  and  amount  to  100,057. 
Comparing  these  with  the  female  record  as  I  have  determined  it 
from  the  Redfield  Genealogy,  we  have  the  following  table: 

TABLE    II. 

PERCENTAGE  OF  CHILDREN  AT  DIFFERENT  AGES  OF  MOTHERS. 

Ages  ....15-19  20-24  25-29  30-34  35-39  40-44  45-4950+ 

Dublin  4.65  29.67  32.40  23.29  7.38  2.42  .13  .03 

Edinburg  and 

Glasgow..  2.30  22.62  30.89  23.61  14.76  5.15  ..58  .03 
Finland  and 

Sweden  . .  3.29  16.50  26.32  25.61  18.08  8.51  1.69  — 
Redfields, 

iSthcen..   3.33    22.78    28.33    21.63    14-44     8.88        .57     — 

From  this  table  it  will  be  seen  that  Ireland  stands  at  the  extreme 
of  early  reproduction  and  Finland  and  Sweden  at  the  extreme  of 
late  production,  while  Scotland  and  America  are  intermediate  and 
close  together.  Finland  and  Sweden  being  very  cold  climates  and 

(2)  Fecundity,  Fertility,  and  Sterility,  p.  7. 

(3)  Ibid.,  p.  IS. 


88  STANDARD  OF  COMPARISON. 

the  age  of  puberty  being  considerably  affected  by  temperature,  these 
countries  present  an  exceptional  condition  which  is  not  applicable 
to  America  and  Europe  in  general.  I  shall  therefore  ignore  them 
and  make  my  comparison  more  particularly  with  Ireland  and  Scot- 
land. I  can  do  this  better  because  the  statistics  for  these  last  men- 
tioned countries  are  more  complete  and  reliable  than  for  Finland 
and  Sweden.  The  following  table  giving  the  ages  of  mothers  for 
different  percentage  of  children,  shows  that  while  the  Redfield 
mothers  of  the  eighteenth  century  began  reproduction  a  little  earlier 
than  the  Scotch  mothers  of  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
the  average  age  of  reproduction  was  higher  and  was  continued  to 
a  later  age.  In  other  words,  the  standard  here  adopted  is  somewhat 
high  as  compared  to  Scotland,  and  markedly  high  as  compared  to 
Ireland,  and  consequently  it  will  operate  against,  rather  than  in 
favor  of,  the  theory  that  eminent  men  should,  as  a  whole,  have  birth- 
ranks  above  the  average. 

TABLE    III. 

AGES  OF  MOTHERS  FOR  DIFFERENT  PERCENTAGES  OF  CHILDREN. 

Proportion  of  children.  Redfields.  Scotland.  Ireland. 

10  per  cent  under 22-0  22-4  21-2 

50  per  cent  under 29-2  28-11  27-3 

90  per  cent  under 39- 10  39-6  35-0 

TEST  BY  INSURANCE  RECORDS. 

The  above  comparisons  have  been  made  with  different  classes 
of  mothers  because  the  statistics  were  in  a  form  that  would  enable 
me  to  do  so,  but  I  am  able  also  to  make  a  comparison  between 
American  fathers  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  Irish,  fathers  from 
1830  to  1841.  Prof.  Miles  quotes  from  Walford's  Insurance 


STANDARD  OF  COMPARISON.  89 

Cyclopedia,  Vol.  III.,  p.  189,  a  series  of  tables  showing  the  ages  of 
fathers  for  the  births  of  977,446  children.  From  these  tables  I  am 
able  to  calculate  the  percentage  of  children  for  different  ages  of 
Irish  fathers  which  I  have  put  into  a  table  that  will  compare  them 
with  the  fathers  used  in  our  standard.  This  table  shows  a  very 
marked  difference,  and  that  the  ages  of  Irish  fathers  and  Irish 
mothers  are  almost  identical.  While  it  is  a  fact  that  where  mar- 
riages are  early  there  is  less  difference  between  the  ages  of  husbands 
and  wives  than  where  marriages  are  late,  I  doubt  if  this  table  repre- 
sents the  whole  truth.  What  is  apparent,  however,  is  that  our 
adopted  standard  is  a  high  one,  and  one  that  is  higher  than  would 
have  been  the  case  if  I  had  adopted  the  available  statistics  instead 
of  obtaining  my  own  from  an  original  source. 

TABLE    IV. 

PERCENTAGE  OF   CHILDREN   AT   DIFFERENT  AGES   OF   FATHERS. 

Fathers.  Ireland,  Redfields, 

1 9th  century.  i8th  century. 

Under  17 — .39 

17  to  25 46.18 15.42 

26  to  35 45-53 49-58 

36  to  45 6.92 26.25 

46  to  55 —.86 5.83 

Over  55 — .12   2.92 

MARRIAGES  GROWING  LATER. 

It  is  a  well  recognized  and  often  commented  upon  fact  that, 
for  the  last  century  or  more,  marriages  have  been  growing  later  and 
later,  and  in  comparing  my  standard  with  the  recorded  marriages 
of  Redfields  during  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  I  find 
that  this  is  true  of  this  particular  group  of  persons.  Remembering 


90  STANDARD  OF  COMPARISON. 

that  our  comparisons  were  between  reproductions  a  century  apart, 
it  will  be  seen  that  there  is  another  reason  for  thinking  that  our 
standard  is,  if  anything,  abnormally  high.  To  still  further  test 
the  matter,  I  compared  the  average  ages  of  the  marriages  from 
which  our  standard  of  births  are  taken  with  the  ages  recorded  in 
marriage  licenses  issued  in  Chicago  at  different  times  during  1900, 
and  I  find  that  they  are  almost  identical,  although  there  is  a  differ- 
ence of  more  than  a  century  of  time  between  them. 

Though  there  are  so  many  reasons  for  considering  the  adopted 
standard  as  being  high,  I  have  still  decided  to  retain  it  because  it  is 
a  definite  and  known  standard  of  known  accuracy,  and  because,  if 
the  men  measured  by  it  are  found  to  be  high  in  comparison  to  it, 
it  will  be  known  that  they  are  absolutely  high,  and  will  be  relatively 
high  as  compared  to  any  standard  that  may  be  made  from  the  mass 
of  human  beings. 

INTERPRETATION  OF  MEASUREMENTS  BY  THE  SCALE. 

Having  adopted  a  standard  of  birth-ranks,  and  having  divided 
this  standard  so  that  it  becomes  a  scale  of  equal  divisions,  the  law 
of  probabilities  declares  that  if  we  take  any  miscellaneous  group  of 
men  and  find  their  birth-ranks,  it  will  be  found  that  they  are  pretty 
evenly  distributed  along  the  length  of  the  scale.  A  deduction  from 
this  law  is  that  if  we  take  a  selected  group  of  men  and  compare 
their  birth-ranks  with  a  standard  scale  of  birth-ranks,  then  if  we 
find  that  there  is  an  unusual  accumulation  at  a  certain  part  of  the 
scale  or  an  unusual  absence  of  cases  at  some  other  part  of  the  scale, 
this  accumulation  or  this  absence  must  be  in  some  way  connected 
with  the  manner  in  which  that  group  of  men  was  selected.  This  de- 
duction is  very  old  and  well  known.  Aristotle  recognized  it  when  he 
held  that  anything  which  occurs  regularly  cannot  be  the  result  of 


STANDARD  OF  COMPARISON.  9 1 

Chance,  but  must  occur  because  of  some  definite  law.  Since  Aris- 
totle's time,  the  law  of  probabilities  has  been  demonstrated  so  many 
times  that  no  one  any  longer  questions  it.  Vast  business  enterprises 
and  even  gamblers  depend  upon  the  law  of  probabilities  for  their 
profits.  Any  one  who  wishes  to  test  the  law  of  probabilities  can 
easily  do  so  by  throwing  dice.  Each  die  is  a  cube  having  its  sides 
marked  with  from  one  to  six  spots  so  arranged  that  the  sum  of  the 
opposite  sides  equals  seven.  If  any  one  throws  two  dice  he  may 
get  two  aces,  the  sum  of  which  is  two;  or  he  may  get  two  sixes, 
the  sum  of  which  is  twelve ;  but  if  he  throws  the  pair  ten  times  the 
sum  will  be  very  near  seventy,  or  an  average  of  seven.  In  one 
hundred  throws  the  average  would  be  still  nearer  seven,  and  in  one 
thousand  throws  the  average  would  never  vary  from  seven  more 
than  a  minute  fraction. 

THE  SCALE   AND  THE  LAW   OF   PROBABILITIES. 

Having  established  a  standard  scale  of  birth-ranks  and  having 
twenty-five  men4  whose  births  we  wish  to  apply  to  this  scale,  it 
follows  from  the  law  of  probabilities  that  we  should  find  two  or 
three  births  in  each  one  of  the  ten  classes.  It  also  follows  that  if 
we  take  the  birth-ranks  of  the  immediate  ancestors  of  these  twenty- 
five  men  we  should  also  find  their  births  evenly  distributed  along 
the  scale.  From  the  manner  in  which  the  scale  was  made  and 
its  comparison  with  what  it  would  have  been  if  made  from  other 
sources,  it  is  evident  that  whatever  deviation  there  is  from  an  exactly 
uniform  distribution,  that  deviation  should  be  in  favor  of  placing 
the  larger  number  in  the  classes  represented  by  the  small  letters 


(4)  Four  of  the  twenty-nine  have  been  omitted  from  consideration 
because  of  the  impossibility  of  finding  dates  relating  to  their  ancestors.  This 
should  not  affect  the  result,  because  there  is  no  reason  why  unknown  persons 
should  differ  from  known  ones. 


92  STANDARD  OF  COMPARISON. 

rather  than  in  the  classes  represented  by  the  capital  letters.  If  there 
be  no  relationship  between  the  mental  ability  of  a  child  and  the  age 
of  the  father  when  that  child  was  born,  then,  according  to  the  law 
of  probabilities,  the  men  of  the  greatest  intellects  are  just  as  likely 
to  appear  at  one  part  of  the  scale  as  at  another,  and  that  there  is 
nothing  to  cause  two  or  more  of  superior  intellectual  capacity  to 
appear  close  together.  Conversely,  if  several  men  having  intellects 
manifestly  superior  to  others  appear  close  together,  and  especially 
if  they  are  grouped  at  one  extreme  of  the  scale,  then  that  fact  is 
explainable  only  by  some  cause  outside  of  the  law  of  probabilities. 
Furthermore,  if  it  should  appear  that  the  mental  greatness  of  these 
men  was  closely  proportional  to  their  relative  positions  on  the  scale, 
that  proportional  ism  could  only  be  explainable  on  the  theory  that 
the  inherited  mental  capacity  of  a  child  depends  upon  the  age  of  the 
parents  at  the  time  the  child  was  born. 

FAME  VERSUS  MENTAL  GREATNESS. 

Before  passing  from  this  branch  of  the  subject  I  must  call  atten- 
tion to  the  fact  that  fame  is  not  always  commensurate  with  mental 
greatness.  If  it  were,  then  Tom  Thumb  and  the  Siamese  twins 
would  be  considered  as  intellectual  giants  because  they  certainly 
were  famous  in  their  day.  It  is  therefore  evident  that  the  relative 
positions  of  these  men  in  fame  is  not  necessarily  their  relative 
positions  when  we  come  to  consider  them  purely  in  respect  to  their 
mental  powers.  In  studying  these  men  from  the  intellectual  stand- 
point we  must  consider  what  they  have  done,  and  must  eliminate 
from  such  consideration  any  halo  of  glory  that  depends  for  its  luster 
on  some  spectacular  achievement. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

HALL   OF   FAME    MEN. 

In  carrying  out  this  inquiry  into  the  ancestors  of  the  Hall  of 
Fame  Men,  I  made  for  each  person  a  diagram  like  the  following 
one  given  for  Beecher: 


Yale. 


D? 


Lyman   Beecher, 
b.  1775-10-12 


E? 

David   Beecher. 
b.   . 


Roxanna  Foote, 
b.    1775-9-10 


3rd.  wife.  e. 

Esther  Lyman, 
b.  1749-2-17... 


Lawyer.  d. 

Eli  Foote, 
b.  1747-10-30.... 


B? 

Roxanna  Ward, 
b.    . 


A.  C. 

{Nathaniel   Beecher... Joseph,  about  1658 
b.   1706-4-7. 
Sarah  Sperry. 


D. 

John  Lyman Bbenezer,  b.  1682. 

b.  1717-5-28. 

Hope  Hawley. 


D. 

[  Daniel  Foote Nathaniel,  b.  1682. 

I      b.  1717-2-6. 

I  Margaret  Parsons. 


C? 
Gen.  Andrew  Ward.. Col.  Andrew,  b. 


This  shows  that  Henry  Ward  Beecher  was  born  June  24,  1813, 
and  was  the  son  of  Lyman  Beecher,  who  was  born  October  12, 
1775,  and  was  graduated  at  Yale  College.  We  thus  see  that  the 
father  of  Henry  was  not  only  given  an  education  that  developed 
his  brain  in  youth,  but  that  he  was  more  than  thirty-eight  years  of 
age  when  his  son  was  born,  and  consequently  had  had  a  great  many 
years  in  which  to  use  his  brain,  and  the  opportunity  to  transmit  the 
effects  of  such  use,  if  there  is  such  a  thing  as  use-inheritance.  The 
date  of  birth  of  Lyman's  father  David  is  not  given,  so  we  cannot 

93 


94  HALL  OF  FAME  MEN. 

know  accurately  what  birth-rank  Lyman  takes,  but  we  find  that 
David's  father,  Nathaniel,  was  born  April  7,  1706.  This  gives  a 
trifle  over  69  years  and  6  months  between  Lyman  and  his  grand- 
father, which  period  may  be  divided  so  as  to  locate  one  person  in 
class  D  and  the  other  in  class  E.  It  matters  little,  as  far  as  our 
investigation  is  concerned,  at  what  point  the  division  is  made, 
because  there  is  a  total  of  nearly  seventy  years,  less  two  periods 
of  growth  from  infancy  to  maturity.  If  the  division  be  made 
unequally,  what  is  subtracted  from  one  person  is  added  to  the  other. 
In  such  cases  as  this  I  have  made  the  divisions  nearly  equal  unless 
there  was  some  collateral  reason  for  doing  otherwise.  In  the  present 
case  we  find  that  Lyman  was  the  son  of  David's  third  wife,  so  that 
the  probabilities  are  that  David  was  comparatively  old  when  Lyman 
was  born,  consequently  I  have  given  the  higher  rank  to  Lyman.  In 
his  autobiography,  Lyman  Beecher  tells  us  that  his  father  David, 
though  self-taught,  was  one  of  the  best  educated  persons  in  New 
England,  consequently  we  have  another  opportunity  for  use-inherit- 
ance by  a  long  period  of  mental  activity.  Pushing  the  inquiry 
further,  we  find  that  David's  father,  Nathaniel,  was  born  when  his 
father  Joseph  was  about  46,  and  I  also  find  that  Joseph  was  born 
when  his  father  Isaac  was  about  38.  In  thus  running  back  the  male 
line  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher's  ancestors,  we  find  five  successive 
births  from  fathers,  all  of  whom  had  lived  considerably  more  than 
the  average  number  of  years  before  their  sons  were  born.  The 
result  was  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  a  man  whose  mental  greatness 
was  of  such  a  calibre  that  he  seemed  to  be  able  to  meet  any  emer- 
gency with  the  easy  superiority  that  characterizes  a  man  who  is  born 
with  a  great  brain  in  contradistinction  to  one  who  achieves  great- 
ness only  by  extraordinary  exertions.  If  it  be  conceded  that  there 
is  such  a  thing  as  use-inheritance,  then  this  examination  into  the. 


HALL  OF  FAME  MEN. 


95 


ancestry  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher  gives  a  plain  explanation  of  his 
great  mental  ability,  while  if  we  deny  use-inheritance,  then  there 
is  no  explanation  and  we  have  to  simply  assume  that  in  some  mys- 
terious manner  there  was  a  series  of  advantageous  variations.  In 
running  through  the  female  ancestry,  we  find  Henry's  mother, 
Roxanna  Foote,  as  born  in  class  c  from  her  father,  who  was  edu- 
cated as  a  lawyer.  If  we  assume  that 

/     a    3    </   <r 
Foote's  wife,  Roxanna  Ward,  was  two 

years  younger  than  her  husband,  then 
there  would  be  eighty  years  between 
her  and  her  grandfather,  Colonel  An- 
drew Ward,  which  we  may  divide  by 
placing  General  Ward  in  class  C  and 
Roxanna  in  class  B.  Tabulating  the 
ancestry  of  Beecher  as  far  as  known 
and  estimated,  and  making  a  diagram 
we  have  that  shown  in  Fig.  4. 

Here  we  see  that  while  there  is  a 
birth  in  each  of  the  classes  A  and  B, 
there  is  none  in  either  of  the  corre- 
sponding classes  of  a  or  b;  and  in  the 
classes  c  and  d  there  is  one  each,  while 
in  classes  C  and  D  there  are  three  each.  On  the  law  of  probabilities 
these  births  should  be  distributed  pretty  evenly  each  side  of  the 
central  dividing  line,  while  as  a  matter  of  fact  we  have  nine  on  the 
older  side  and  three  on  the  younger  side. 

OMITTED  PERSONS. 

It  was  my  original  intention  to  carry  out  this  investigation  for 
each  person  as  completely  as  I  have  done  for  Beecher,  but  I  soon 


FIG.    4— ANCESTRY   OP  H.    W. 
BEECHER. 


96  HALL  OF   FAME   MEN. 

found  this  to  be  an  impossibility  with  the  records  available.  In  fact, 
in  the  cases  of  Fulton,  Clay,  Cooper  and  Stuart  I  have  not  been 
able  to  take  the  first  step,  the  dates  of  the  births  of  their  fathers  being- 
unknown.  In  the  cases  of  Fulton*  and  Clay  I  have  reasons  for 
thinking  that  they  rank  high,  but  the  data  available  are  not  sufficient 
for  a  fairly  accurate  estimate.  The  investigation  is  therefore 
restricted  to  twenty-five  persons,  for  whom  I  have  found  a  total  of 
137  births,  or  an  average  of  five  and  one-half  for  each.  A  few  of 
these  births  have  been  estimated  after  the  manner  illustrated  in  the 
case  of  Beecher,  but  I  have  made  no  estimate  which  was  not  war- 
ranted by  the  information  at  hand.  The  result  of  this  is  given  in 
Table  V,  in  which  the  first  column  gives  the  birth-ranks  of  the 
persons  named ;  the  next  two  columns  those  of  the  father  and  mother 
respectively ;  the  next  four  columns  those  of  the  grandparents ;  and 
the  letters  beyond  those  of  earlier  generations,  which  are  so  scattered 
that  I  have  simply  stated  them  in  series  without  designating  who 
these  persons  were. 

ABSENCE  OF  LOW  BIRTH-RANK. 

In  reading  down  the  first  column  we  find  a  total  absence  of  the 
letter  a,  while,  according  to  the  law  of  probabilities,  there  should 
be  two  or  three  persons  in  this  class.  On  the  other  hand,  we  find 
five  persons  born  in  class  A,  three  of  whom  come  in  sub-class  A2 
and  one  in  sub-class  A3.  According  to  the  probabilities  of  the  case, 
there  should  be  only  one  birth  in  the  sub-classes  instead  of  four, 
while  the  chances  are  even  against  any  one  being  born  in  sub-class 
A3.  A  diagram  of  these  twenty-five  famous  men  is  given  in  Fig.  5. 


*Robert  Fulton  was  born  in  1765.  In  the  "History  of  the  Bradlee  Family," 
page  18,  I  find  that  Robert  had  a  cousin,  John  Fulton,  born  in  1733.  This  would 
make  Robert  thirty-two  years  younger  than  his  cousin,  a  difference  that  can 
only  be  explained  by  high  birth-ranks. 


SAMUEL  JOHNSON   [53] 


MARIE   ANTOINETTE    [47] 


HALL  OF  FAME  MEN. 


97 


If  we  could  eliminate  the  five  men  born  in  class  A,  we  would 
find  the  remainder  pretty  evenly  distributed,  though  the  absence 
of  any  one  born  to  a  young  father  would  be  unexplainable  on  the 
theory  that  the  father  took  no  part  beyond  transmitting  what  he 
received  from  his  ancestors.  These  five  men  are,  however,  from 

/   a.  3    ^  r 


FIG.  5— DISTRIBUTION  OF  25  HALL  OF  FAME 
MEN  BY  THEIR  BIRTH-RANKS. 

our  standpoint  of  mental  greatness,  among  the  greatest  in  the 
whole  list.  If  we  arrange  our  list  so  as  to  rank  these  twenty-five 
men  by  letters,  as  is  done  in  the  table,  we  find  that  those  in  the 
higher  rank  are  not  only  more  numerous  than  those  in  the  lower 
rank,  but  as  a  class  they  are  mentally  greater. 


98 


HALL  OF   FAME   MEN. 


TABLE    V. 

Birth-ranks  of  the  Hall  of  Fame  Men  and  their  Ancestors. 


Parents 

Grandparents 

Paternal 

Maternal 

Previous 

F 

M 

GF 

GM 

GF 

GM 

Generations 

Audubon  A3 

AS 

A3 
A2 

c 

O 

a 
D 
B 

E 

b 
a 
b 
b 
A 
b 
0 
B 
C 
D 
A 
B 
e 
B 

A 

C 

b 
e 
c 

A3 

e 

c 
C 

B 

d 
b 
b 

c 

a2 
0 

A3 

C 

D 
A 
E 
E 
E 

B 
A 
A 
B 

c 
A 
B 

d 
A 

as 

E 
D 
e 

D 

b 

C 

C 

b 
e 
e 

B 
0 

B 

E 
c 

A* 

b 
A 

d 
B 

B 

D 
c 

A 

AOOBDD 

CE 
DD 
AODDO 
D 

dA 
c 

bA 
c 

CB 
DcB 
AEG 
d 
O 
bE 
AA 

Franklin                            A8 

Irving                            .    A3 

Lee                         A2 

Farragut   A 

Adams                                B 

Webster                            B 

Beecher             O 

Mann  .      .               O 

Washington  C 

Jefferson  D 

Story  E 

Edwards                            E 

Emerson                      .      E 

Kent        ....                     E 

Lincoln  e 

Longfellow.                       e 

Peabody                            e 

Hawthorne    ..         d 

Morse  d 

Charming                              C 

Grant  c 

Marshall                             b 

Whitney  b 

If  we  read  the  lines  of  Table  V  horizontally,  we  find  that  an 
ancestor  in  class  a  occurs  in  the  cases  of  only  four  of  these  famous 


HALL  OF   FAME  MEN. 


99 


men,  and  in  no  case  does  one  of  them  have  more  than  a  single 
ancestor  born  in  class  a.  There  are  consequently  only  four  class  a 
births  out  of  a  total  of  137,  whereas,  if  they  depended  upon  the 
law  of  probabilities,  there  should  be  thirteen  or  fourteen  of  them. 
On  the  other  hand,  seventeen  of  the  twenty-five  famous  men  have 
a  class  A  ancestry,  while  in  the  case  of  seven  of  them  there  is 


SLO 


a, 
4- 
c 


C 
B 

A 


FIG.  6— DISTRIBUTION  OF  HALL  OF  FAME  MEN  AND  THEIR  ANCES- 
TORS BY  THEIR  BIRTH-RANKS. 

more  than  one  class  A  birth.  In  all  there  are  twenty-eight  births 
in  class  A,  or  seven  times  as  many  as  there  are  in  class  a.  And 
further,  there  is  only  one  birth  each  in  sub-classes  a2  and  a3, 
while  there  are  six  in  sub-class  A2  and  four  in  sub-class  A3. 

The  whole  series  of  birth-ranks  given  in  Table  V  are  condensed 
into  the  diagram  shown  in  Fig.  6.  This  diagram  shows  very  plainly 
the  preponderance  of  births  to  old  fathers  when  this  group  of 
men  and  their  ancestors  are  considered  together.  It  also  shows  a 


100  HALL  OF  FAME  MEN. 

fairly  regular  decrease  from  class  A  to  class  a,  except  for  the 
peculiar  prominence  of  class  b  and  a  somewhat  less  prominence 
of  class  c.  At  first  sight  this  appears  to  be  an  exception  to  the 
rule  that  great  men  are  the  result  of  successive  late  reproductions, 
but  a  little  consideration  will  explain  the  cause  of  it. 

IRREGULARITY  EXAMINED. 

By  tabulation  of  the  births  used  to  establish  our  standard  I 
find  that  the  average  age  of  the  father  when  the  first  child  is  born 
comes  approximately  at  the  dividing  line  between  classes  a  and  b, 
and  that  when  sons  alone  are  considered  the  majority  of  the 
eldest  sons  are  born  in  class  b,  while  lesser  numbers  are  born 
in  classes  a  and  c.  These  fourteen  persons  in  class  b,  therefore, 
are  principally  eldest  sons,  and  by  inspection  I  find  that  ten  are 
sons  and  four  are  daughters.  Now  it  happens  that  in  New  Eng- 
land, in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  the  time  and 
place  of  the  births  of  all  these  sons  except  one,  there  was  the  custom, 
when  the  circumstances  permitted,  of  selecting  the  eldest  son  for 
a  college  education.  Except  in  comparatively  rare  instances,  this 
was  the  only  son  so  favored.  From  a  limited  investigation  into 
this  matter  I  find  that  eight  of  the  sons  born  in  class  b  had  college 
educations.  Of  the  other  two  births,  one  represented  the  age  of 
the  great-grandfather  of  John  Adams,  and  the  other  the  age  of  the 
great-great-grand  father  of  General  Grant.  I  did  not  attempt  to 
search  into  these.  Of  the  four  births  in  class  a,  three  were  sons, 
two  of  whom  are  known  to  have  had  college  educations.  Of  the 
five  sons  born  in  class  c,  two  had  college  educations. 

IRREGULARITY    EXPLAINED. 

It  must  be  conceded  that  a  son  having  a  college  education,  and 
thereafter  devoting  his  energies  to  one  of  the  liberal  professions, 


HALL  OF  FAME  MEN.  IOI 

will,  in  middle  life,  be  superior  to  a  brother  of  his  who  did  not 
have  these  advantages  and  who  spent  his  life  farming,  and  this 
will  be  true  even  though  the  brother  were  born  with  better  natural 
intellectual  powers.  As  a  consequence,  we  frequently  find  our  great 
men  coming  from  a  later  son  of  the  educated  member  of  the  family, 
and  as  a  social  custom  made  the  eldest  son  the  educated  member, 
we  see  the  reason  for  the  prominence  of  class  b  line  in  Fig.  6,  as 
compared  to  those  of  the  classes  c,  d  and  e.  The  peculiarity  of 
the  diagram  is,  therefore,  simply  an  illustration  of  the  neglected 
factor,  of  functional  activity,  and  if  there  had  not  been  a  process 
of  selecting  the  eldest  son  as  the  only  member  of  the  family  to 
receive  a  college  education,  we  may  feel  quite  sure  that  births  in 
classes  a,  b  and  c  would  have  been  very  few,  if  not  non-existing. 

DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

Taking  up  the  four  individuals  who  have  a  class  a  birth  in  their 
ancestries  we  find  that  Daniel  Webster  was  born  January  18,  1782, 
and  was  the  son  of  Ebenezer,  born  May  22,  1739;  who  was  son 
of  Ebenezer,  born  October  10,  1714;  son  of  Ebenezer,  born  in 
1667;  son  of  Thomas,  born  in  1632.  Thus,  while  the  father  of 
Daniel  was  born  in  class  a  and  only  lacked  eighteen  days  of  being 
in  class  b,  the  grandfather  was  born  in  class  A.  The  father  is 
therefore  a  class  a  link  between  births  in  classes  A  and  B.  The 
time  elapsed  between  the  births  of  the  great-grandfather  and  Daniel 
is  114  years,  which,  divided  into  three  parts,  gives  an  average 
of  38  years,  less  a  period  of  growth  for  each  generation,  for  use. 
In  this  case,  however,  the  use  principally  occurred  with  the  great- 
grandfather and  father,  the  latter  of  whom  had  a  college  education. 

JONATHAN  EDWARDS. 

In  the  case  of  Jonathan  Edwards  we  find  substantially  the  same 
thing,  he  being  born  in  class  E,  his  father  in  class  a  and  his  grand- 


IO2  HALL  OF  FAME  MEN. 

father  in  class  A.  In  this  case  the  grandfather's  wife  (who  was 
born  in  class  D)  was  older  than  her  husband,  so  that  if  the  Rev. 
Timothy  Edwards  were  reckoned  from  his  mother,  instead  of  from 
his  father,  he  would  be  in  class  b. 

ASA   GRAY. 

In  the  case  of  Asa  Gray,  the  class  a  person  is  his  mother,  who 
was  a  daughter  of  Joseph  Howard,  born  April  3,  1767.  Thomas, 
the  great-grandfather  of  Joseph,  came  to  America  in  1634.  If 
we  assume  that  he  was  only  two  years  old  when  he  came,  then 
we  would  have  three  successive  steps  of  45  years,  or  three  suc- 
cessive classes  A,  before  the  class  a  of  Gray's  mother.  On  the 
male  side  of  the  house  we  have  Asa's  father  born  in  class  B  and 
his  grandfather  born  in  class  A. 

ELI    WHITNEY. 

In  the  case  of  Eli  Whitney  we  find  that  it  was  the  great-grand- 
father who  was  young  when  his  son  was  born.  Unfortunately  I 
have  not  been  able  to  locate  a  further  generation,  neither  have  I 
been  able  to  obtain  the  records  for  the  female  branch,  so  that  on 
the  face  of  the  returns  Whitney  ranks  low. 

We  thus  see  that  in  no  case  is  there  a  class  a  connected  in  suc- 
cession with  another  class  of  low  rank,  except  in  the  case  of  Asa 
Gray  and  his  mother.  Even  in  this  case  we  have,  against  one 
person  in  class  a  and  one  in  class  b,  four  persons  in  class  A  and 
one  in  class  B. 

BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  have  successive  classes  A  in  several 
cases,  as  in  Audubon,  Franklin,  Irving  and  Gray.  Of  these  Ben- 
jamin Franklin  undoubtedly  possessed  the  finest  intellect  ever 
produced  on  the  American  continent.  Without  the  advantages  of 


HALL  OF  FAME  MEN.  IO3' 

schooling  he  became  great  as  a  writer,  great  as  an  editor,  great 
as  an  inventor,  great  as  a  scientist,  great  as  a  diplomat,  great  as 
a  statesman,  and  great  as  a  councillor  when  the  American  Republic 
was  struggling  into  existence.  When  we  examine  into  his  ancestry 
we  find  a  most  remarkable  state  of  affairs.  He  was  born  January 
6,  1706,  and  was  the  son  of  Josiah,  who  was  born  December 
23,  1655.  The  grandfather,  Thomas,  was  born  in  1598,  and,  from 
what  Franklin  tells  us  in  his  autobiography,  the  great-grandfather 
must  have  been  about  seventy  when  Thomas  was  born.  We  thus 
have  Josiah  fifty-one  when  Benjamin  was  born,  Thomas  fifty-seven 
when  Josiah  was  born,  and  the  great-grandfather  about  seventy 
when  Thomas  was  born.  There  are  still  two  more  steps  to  account 
for,  as  Franklin  tells  us  that  he  "was  the  youngest  son  of  the 
youngest  son  for  five  generations  back."  Franklin's  mother  was 
Abiah  Folger,  daughter  of  Peter  Folger,  born  when  her  father 
was  fifty  years  of  age.  Cotton  Mather,  in  his  Magnolia  Christi 
Americana,  designates  Peter  Folger  as  "a  godly  and  learned  Eng- 
lishman." We  have  here  linked  together  four  persons  born  in 
class  A  and  its  sub-classes,  A2  and  A3.  As  a  mere  matter  of  prob- 
abilities, there  is  only  one  chance  in  500,000  that  a  person  could 
be  born  in  as  high  a  rank  as  Benjamin  Franklin,  and  consequently 
only  one  chance  in  20,000  that  such  a  person  should  appear  in  this 
list  of  twenty-five  famous  men.  In  fact,  the  chances  against  such 
a  thing  occurring  are  very  much  greater,  as  my  examination  of 
the  Redfield  Genealogy  shows  that  only  about  one  class  A  person 

in  twenty  is  born  to  a  class  A  father. 

/ 

JOHN    JAMES    AUDUBON. 

John  James  Audubon,  America's  greatest  naturalist,  was  born 
May  4,  1780,  and  was  the  son  of  John  Audubon,  who  was  born 


IO4  HALL  OF  FAME  MEN. 

in  1723.  John  the  elder  was  the  son  of  a  poor  French  fisherman 
and  was  the  twentieth  child.  We  thus  have  Audubon  and  his  father 
both  in  sub-class  A3.  The  chances  are  therefore  100  to  one  against 
such  a  person  being  in  this  list. 

DAVID  GLASCOE  FARRAGUT. 

David  Glascoe  Farragut,  the  ablest  and  brainiest  of  American 
naval  officers,  was  born  July  5,  1801,  and  was  the  son  of  George 
Farragut,  who  was  born  September  29,  1755,  and  consequently 
comes  in  class  A.  While  I  have  the  names  of  all  of  Farragut's 
grandparents,  I  do  not  have  any  dates  for  them,  and  unfortunately 
cannot  carry  his  ancestry  further. 

WASHINGTON  IRVING. 

Washington  Irving,  born  April  3,  1783,  possessed  one  of  those 
rare  intellects  that  permitted  him  to  reach  the  greatest  heights  of 
literature  without  apparent  effort.  He  was  the  son  of  William 
Irving,  a  sailor,  who  was  born  in  1731.  William  was  the  son  of 
Magnus  Irving,  who  was  born  about  1675.  We  thus  have  both 
Irving  and  his  father  in  sub-class  A2.  The  chances  are  sixteen  to 
one  against  a  person  so  born  being  found  in  this  list. 

ROBERT   E.    LEE. 

Robert  E.  Lee  is  considered  by  many  to  have  been  a  general 
of  ability  superior  to  Grant.  However  that  may  be,  it  is  quite 
certain  that  outside  of  military  life  he  was  a  great  man.  During 
later  life  he  was  the  president  of  a  college.  The  fact  that  a  defeated 
general,  and  the  exponent  of  a  lost  and  discredited  cause,  should 
be  selected  as  one  of  America's  greatest  men  shows  that  intrinsically 
he  was  great  indeed.  He  was  born  January  19,  1807,  and  was 
the  youngest  son  of  Col.  Henry  Lee,  born  January  29,  1756. 


HALL  OF  FAME  MEN.  10$ 

Unlike  those  we  have  just  been  considering,  Lee  was  descended 
from  a  line  of  prominent  ancestors. 

GEORGE   WASHINGTON. 

George  Washington  was  born  February  22,  1732.  He  was 
the  son  of  Augustine  Washington,  born  in  1694;  son  of  Laurence, 
born  1 66 1 ;  son  of  Colonel  John,  born  in  1627.  Washington  thus 
comes  in  class  C  and  his  two  immediate  ancestors  in  class  E.  The 
mother  of  Washington,  Mary  Ball,  was  born  in  1706,  and  was 
the  daughter  of  Col.  Joseph  Ball,  who  was  the  son  of  Colonel 
William  Ball.  The  date  of  Joseph  Ball's  birth  is  not  given,  but 
we  find  that  he  went  to  England  to  look  after  his  father's  estate 
there  thirty-six  years  before  his  daughter  was  born,  so  he  could 
not  have  been  very  young  when  that  event  transpired.  It  is  a 
question  how  young  a  person  would  be  sent  across  the  Atlantic 
on  such  a  mission  in  the  seventeenth  century,  but  if  he  were  fifteen 
at  that  time,  Mary  would  come  in  sub-class  A2,  where  she  has 
been  placed  on  an  estimate.  Neither  is  the  birth  of  Colonel  William 
Ball  given,  but  we  find  that  he  was  married  in  1638,  so  there  must 
have  been  over  ninety  years  between  his  birth  and  the  birth  of 
his  granddaughter.  Joseph  Ball  is  therefore  placed  in  class  B 
as  an  estimate.  There  is  a  record  of  the  Balls  running  back 
eight  generations  which  gives  the  dates  when  the  different  persons 
lived,  but  does  not  give  the  dates  of  their  births.  Taking  the 
difference  between  the  estimated  date  of  birth  of  the  first  Ball 
and  the  date  of  Mary's  birth,  and  dividing  by  eight,  we  find  that 
the  average  period  between  births  for  this  family  is  about  forty 
years.  This  is  an  unusual  length  of  time  for  a  series  of  genera- 
tions, and  tested  by  our  standard  would  indicate  that  only  one 
person  in  more  than  168,000  would  be  born  that  length  of  time 


IO6  HALL  OF  FAME  MEN. 

from  the  eighth  preceding  ancestor.  It  is  probable,  however,  that 
the  larger  period  of  time  was  accumulated  in  Mary's  immediately 
preceding  ancestors.  In  whatever  way  we  look  at  it,  Mary  Ball 
had  quite  a  remarkable  birth  ancestry,  and  from  the  theory  of 
use-inhlritance  should  have  been  quite  a  remarkable  person.  That 
she  was  a  remarkable  person  history  tells  us,  and  popular  opinion 
credits  tfie1  greatness  of  Washington,  not  to  inheritance  from  his 
father,  but  to  inheritance  from  his  mother.  It  is  the  mother  of 
Washington  of  whom  we  hear,  not  the  father. 

ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Trie  same  thing  is  true  of  Lincoln.  While  the  father,  Thomas, 
was  born  in  class  A  (estimated),  he  appears  to  have  been  shift- 
less and  of  not  much  practical  use,  though  a  man  of  considerable 
intelligence.  The  mother,  Nancy  Hanks,  was  the  youngest  of 
eight  children,  and  both  of  her  parents  were  the  youngest  of  con- 
siderable families.  The  distance  between  Nancy  Hanks  and  her 
grandfather  places  both  her  and  her  father  in  class  B,  while  col- 
lateral evidence  places  her  mother  in  nearly,  if  not  quite,  as  high 
rank.  We  thus  have  three,  and  perhaps  more,  steps  of  high 
rank  on  the  mother's  side,  while  the  high  rank  is  known  not  to 
extend  more  than  one  step  on  the  father's  side,  though  the  length 
of  the  next  preceding  step  is  unknown. 

WILLIAM  E.  CHANNING. 

In  the  biography  of  Channing  we  find  the  same  tendency  to 
give  much  credit  to  the  mother,  and  when  we  examine  the  ancestry 
from  the  birth  standpoint  we  can  see  a  reason  for  it.  Channing's 
maternal  grandmother  was  Ann  Remington,  born  in  class  A2,  and 
daughter  of  Judge  Jonathan  Remington,  who  was  born  in  class  C. 


HALL  OF  FAME  MEN.  IO7 

There  were  also  on  the  same  side  of  the  house  two  Harvard 
graduates  and  a  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  What 
the  record  of  this  signer  is  I  have  been  unable  to  determine. 

FEMALE  INFLUENCE. 

This  influence  of  the  female  side  of  the  house  for  good  or  ill 
should  be  borne  in  mind,  because,  as  we  will  see  when  we  come 
to  investigations  involving  only  the  male  side,  it  will  be  the  explana- 
tion of  many  seeming  inconsistencies.  Thus  a  man  born  in  class 
A  from  his  father,  but  whose  mother  is  the  product  of  successive 
classes  a,  would  take  lower  rank,  i.  e.,  be  of  less  mental  ability, 
according  to  the  theory  of  use-inheritance,  than  some  other  man 
born  in  class  B  or  class  C,  but  whose  mother  was  the  product  of 
successive  classes  A.  The  amount  of  mental  activity  also  has  its 
bearing  on  the  matter,  but  as  this  can  rarely  be  known  we  have 
to  depend  upon  age,  which  is  nothing  more  than  time  in  which 
mental  activity  can  be  carried  on.  In  whatever  way  the  matter 
be  viewed,  it  is  quite  certain  that  a  man  of  forty-five  has  used 
his  brain  more  than  the  same  man  has  at  twenty-five.  To  deny 
this  would  be  to  assert  that  he  never  once  used  it  between  the  ages 
of  twenty-five  and  forty-five.  Such  a  thing  might  be  true  of  a 
Rip  Van  Winkle,  but  it  could  hardly  be  true  of  any  one  else. 

JOHN  MARSHALL. 

We  see  this  matter  of  mental  activity  and  female  influence 
both  exercised  in  the  case  of  John  Marshall,  one  of  the  two  cases 
in  which  both  the  persons  named  and  the  father  have  their  birth- 
ranks  represented  by  small  letters.  John  Marshall  was  born  Sep- 
tember 24,  1755,  and  was  the  son  of  Col.  Thomas  Marshall,  born 
April  2,  1730,  who  was  the  son  of  Capt.  John  Marshall,  born 


108  HALL  OF  FAME  MEN. 

about  1700.  My  record  goes  no  further  than  this,  so  that  I  do 
not  know  what  Captain  Marshall's  rank  was.  Colonel  Marshall 
was  a  well-educated  person,  had  one  of  the  finest  libraries  in  Vir- 
ginia, and  gave  a  great  deal  of  his  personal  time  and  attention  to 
the  education  and  training  of  his  son  John.  Colonel  Marshall's 
education  was  self-acquired  and  consisted  of  a  "good  knowledge 
of  surveying,  mathematics,  astronomy,  history,  poetry  and  general 
literature."  It  is  very  probable  that  his  severest  mental  discipline 
and  exertions  were  in  the  years  immediately  preceding  the  birth 
of  his  son  John.  His  wife  was  Mary  Keith,  the  sixth  child  of 
Rev.  James  Keith  and  Mary  Isham  Randolph,  a  descendant  of 
William  Randolph  of  Turkey  Island.  I  do  not  have  the  records 
of  Mr.  Keith  nor  his  wife,  though  we  know  that  she  came  from 
a  family  which  had  previously  acquired  mental  ability. 

HENRY    WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

H.  W.  Longfellow,  the  other  person  having  successive  small 
letters  to  characterize  his  ancestry,  was  born  when  his  father 
lacked  twenty-six  days  of  being  thirty-one  years  old.  Taken  as 
a  whole,  Longfellow's  birth-rank  is  lower  than  that  of  any  other 
person  in  the  list,  but  against  this  we  have  among  his  ancestors 
no  less  than  four  graduates  from  Harvard  College.  From  the 
theory  of  use-inheritance  this  would  imply  that  early  mental  activity 
takes  the  place,  in  a  measure,  of  many  years  of  brain  effort.  That 
it  does  not  do  so  completely  is  readily  seen  by  comparing  Long- 
fellow with  any  of  the  men  who  rank  high  from  the  birth  stand- 
point. While  we  may  concede  that  Longfellow  was  a  great  poet, 
such  a  concession  does  not  imply  that  he  is  comparable  in  mental 
endowments  with  a  Franklin  or  a  Webster. 


HALL  OF  FAME  MEN. 


109 


HALL   OF   FAME   MEN   BY   GROUPS. 

Without  going  through  each  ancestry  in  detail,  we  may  take 
them  up  in  groups.  If  we  add  together  the  ages  of  the  fathers 
of  these  twenty-five  famous  men  and  divide  the  sum  by  twenty- 
five,  we  find  that  the  average  of  the  ages  of  the  fathers  was  thirty- 
six  years,  six  months  and  twenty-two  days,  which  is  nearly  four 
years  above  that  o>f  the  whole  population,  and  is  equivalent  to 
class  D.  If  we  add  together  the  whole  series  of  births  and  divide 
by  their  number,  we  find  the  average  of  137  to  be  thirty-five  years, 
six  months  and  twenty-nine  flays,  or  nearly  three  years  above  the 
average  for  the  whole  country.  It  is  only  proper  to  say,  however, 
that  a  small  part  of  these  137  births  are  estimated  from  the  best 
information  at  hand,  but  in  making  such  estimates  I  have  purposely 
made  them  as  low  as  appeared  reasonable  so  as  to  avoid  the  error 
of  exaggeration.  Whatever  the  error  be,  it  is  so  small  in  the 
aggregate  that  it  could  not  affect  the  average  more  than  a  few 
days  or  a  month  at  most. 

If  we  arrange  the  list  by  the  average  ages  of  all  the  ancestors 
of  each  man,  instead  of  by  the  fame  of  the  men,  as  in  the  first 
instance,  or  by  their  individual  birth-ranks,  as  in  the  second  in- 
stance, we  have  the  arrangement  shown  in  Table  VI.  The  most 
notable  thing  in  this  list  is  the  relative  rise  of  Lincoln  and  Gray  and 
the  fall  of  Adams.  Another  notable  feature  is  the  uniformity  of 
average  ages  of  all  ancestors  as  shown  in  the  last  column.  From 
this  column  it  is  seen  that  in  seventeen  cases  the  average  for  all  is 
above  the  average  for  the  country,  and  that  only  eight  are  below 
the  average.  Furthermore,  those  above  the  dividing  line  of  aver- 
age age  extend  through  all  grades  to  the  highest  birth-rank,  while 
those  below  remain  close  to  the  line  of  division.  The  range  is 


IIO  HALL  OF   FAME   MEN. 

from  22  years  above  the  line  to  only  2^3  below.  We  also  see  that 
those  below  are,  for  the  most  part,  those  for  whom  the  records 
are  incomplete. 

TABLE  VI. 

HALL  OF   FAME  MEN   BY  AVERAGES   OF  KNOWN   ANCESTRAL   BIRTH- 
RANKS. 

No.  of          Aggregate          Av.  age 
births.  years.  at  birth. 

1  Franklin 4 219  54.75 

2  Irving  . 2   108 54 

3  Audubon  2   108  54 

4  Farragut i    45  45 

5  Lincoln 4   157  39.25 

6  Washington* 5    195  39 

7  Lee 10 387  38.70 

8  Hawthorne   8   309  38.60 

9  Mann 4  149  37-25 

10  Story  i    36  36 

11  Beecher 11    393  35.72 

12  Webster   7   249  35-57 

13  Gray   7   248  35.50 

14  Emerson 7 243  34-7O 

15  Jefferson  : . . .     3   104  34.66 

16  Peabody 1 1    381  34.60 

17  Edwards 6 207  34-5° 

18  Longfellow 8   262  32.50 

19  Channing 7 226  32.29 

20  Grant 4   130 32.25 

21  Adams 8  258  32.24 

22  Kent 4   128  32 

23  Morse , 4  I27  31.75 

24  Marshall 4   124  31 

25  Whitney 3    90  30 


HALL  OF  FAME   MEN. 


Ill 


COLLEGE   MEN    AMONG  ANCESTORS. 

The  mid-position  in  this  list  is  held  by  Asa  Gray.  Among  the 
ancestors  of  the  twelve  persons  above  the  center,  there  are  known 
to  be  only  seven  college  men,  while  in  the  ancestors  of  the  twelve 
below  there  are  known  to  be  23  college  men,  or  at  least  men  known 


FIG.   7— AVERAGE    ANCESTRY   OP  TWENTY-FIVE 
HALL  OF  FAME  MEN. 


to  have  had  liberal  educations.  Making  a  diagram.  (Fig.  7)  for 
table  VI,  we  see  that  the  number  of  college  men  among  the  ances- 
tors is  in  inverse  proportion  to  the  ages  of  the  ancestors  at  the  birth 
of  their  offspring.  The  natural  inference  is  that  the  mental  activity 
arising  from  a  college  education  given  to  an  ancestor  is  a  substi- 
tute in  inheritance  for  age  and  experience.  That  it  is  not  a  full 


112  HALL  OF  FAME  MEN. 

substitute  is  seen  from  the  fact  that  the  greatest  brains  of  all  are 
not  descended  from  college  graduates  but  from  ancestors  who 
lived  a  great  many  years  before  their  sons  were  born.  Of  about 
150  known  male  ancestors  of  these  25  famous  men,  about  one  in 
five  received  a  liberal  education  qualifying  him  to  practice  medi- 
cine, law  or  divinity.  At  the  time  these  men  lived  not  more  than 
one  in  a  hundred  had  such  an  education,  hence  it  is  apparent  that 
a  man's  chances  of  becoming  famous  are  increased  twenty  to  one 
by  having  an  educated  ancestor. 

No  matter  how  much  we  analyze  the  relationship  of  these  men 
to  their  ancestors,  each  point  of  view  presents  a  situation  that 
accords  perfectly  with  the  theory  of  use-inheritance,  while  many 
of  them  are  inconsistent  with,  and  unexplainable  by,  any  theory 
that  denies  use-inheritance. 

It  would  be  an  impossible  task  to  arrange  these  twenty-five 
men  in  the  order  of  their  mental  greatness,  because  no  man  is  com- 
petent to  properly  estimate  them.  They  have  originally  been 
arranged  by  ballot  according  to  fame,  and  we  have  arranged  them 
first  by  their  own  birth  letters,  and  second  by  their  combined 
ancestry.  That  the  original  arrangement  is  not  satisfactory  is 
apparent  from  the  fact  that  fame  is  not  necessarily  commensurate 
with  mental  endowments,  though  there  is  certainly  an  approxima- 
tion between  the  two.  That  neither  of  the  other  arrangements  is 
satisfactory  will  be  evident  from  the  fact  that  a  man's  greatness 
depends, 

First,  upon  his  own  mental  activity,  because  no  amount  of 
hereditary  endowment  can  make  a  man  great  if  he  does  not  exert 
himself,  and 

Second,  upon  the  four  factors  arising  out  of  the  mental  activity 
and  age  of  each  of  the  two  parents,  the  eight  factors  similarly  aris- 


HALL  OF   FAME   MEN.  113 

ing  from  his  four  grandparents,   and  the  correspondingly  more 
numerous  factors  arising  from  his  more  remote  ancestors. 

RELATIVE  IMPORTANCE  OF  FATHER  AND  MOTHER. 

Partly  because  the  father  is  usually  older  than  the  mother, 
partly  because  he  is  usually  the  more  mentally  active  of  the  two, 
and  partly  because  characters  acquired  by  one  sex  are  usually  trans- 
mitted more  fully  to  the  same  sex  than  to  the  other  sex,  the  father 
is  more  important  in  the  mental  heredity  of  a  man  than  is  the 
mother.  On  the  other  hand,  the  law  by  which  characters  are  often 
transmitted  in  a  dormant  condition  from  a  maternal  grandfather 
to  a  grandson  may  make  the  mother  an  important  factor,  provided 
that  her  father  was  such. 

To  get  a  somewhat  better  view  of  these  twenty-five  men  they 
have  been  grouped  in  table  VII  by  a  combination  between  their 
ranks  from  their  own  letters  and  their  birth-ranks  from  all  ances- 
tors, and  also  by  a  combination  embracing  these  two  factors  and 
the  third  factor  of  fame.  The  first  of  these  groupings  improves 
the  "letter"  grouping  by  bringing  in  the  effect  of  more  remote 
ancestors,  and  improves  the  "all  ancestors"  grouping  by  giving 
more  importance  to  the  immediate  ancestors.  The  grouping  by 
three  elements  improves  the  other  combination  by  bringing  fame 
to  rectify,  in  a  measure,  the  more  or  less  fragmentary  character  of 
the  "all  ancestors"  element.  Fame  also  recognizes  the  mental 
activity  of  the  individual,  an  element  that  is  entirely  absent  from 
our  ancestral  investigations.  On  the  other  hand  Fame  brings  in 
the  error  of  recognizing  what  is  spectacular  in  contradistinction  to 
what  is  purely  mental  greatness.  It  is  also  somewhat  influenced 
by  prejudice,  and  by  a  lack  of  appreciation  of  the  kind  of  work 
with  which  those  who  determine  fame  are  not  familiar. 


HALL   OF    FAME    MEN. 


TABLE  VII. 


By  age  and  letters. 

1  Franklin. 

2  Audubon. 

3  Irving. 

4  Farragut. 

5  Lee- 

6  Washington. 

7  Webster. 

8  Mann. 

9  Lincoln. 

10  Beecher. 

1 1  Story. 

12  Jefferson. 

13  Emerson. 

14  Adams. 

15  Hawthorne. 

1 6  Edwards. 

17  Peabody. 

1 8  Gray. 

19  Longfellow. 

20  Kent. 

21  Channing. 

22  Grant. 

23  Morse. 

24  Marshall. 

25  Whitney. 


By  age,  letters  and  fame. 

1  Franklin. 

2  Washington. 

3  Irving. 

4  Webster. 

5  Farragut. 

6  Audubon. 

7  Lincoln. 

8  Lee. 

9  Jefferson. 

10  Emerson. 

1 1  Mann. 

12  Beecher. 

13  Edwards. 

14  Hawthorne. 

15  Story. 

1 6  Longfellow. 

17  Grant. 

1 8  Peabody. 

19  Adams. 

20  Marshall. 

21  Morse. 

22  Kent. 

23  Gray. 

24  Channing. 

25  Whitney. 


EXTREMES  OF  GROUPS. 


There  is  not  much  difference  between  these  two  groupings,  and 
it  would  probably  be  difficult  to  say  which  was  the  better  when 
considered  from  our  standpoint.  On  the  whole  it  may  be  taken 


HALL   OF   FAME    MEN.  1 15 

for  granted  that  the  grouping  which  contains  the  greatest  number 
of  elements  is  as  nearly  accurate  as  it  is  possible  to  make  it.  In  the 
grouping  by  combined  "letters"  and  "adl  ancestors"  we  find  Emer- 
son occupying  the  mid-position.  If  we  compare  those  above 
Emerson,  as  a  group,  with  those  below,  as  another  group,  we 
cannot  help  being  struck  by  the  fact  that  those  above  are,  as  a 
class,  mentally  greater  than  those  below.  If  we  compare  all  five 
groupings  with  each  other  we  find  five  men  who  never  fall  below 
the  center  position  and  four  who  never  rise  above  the  center.  If 
we  compare  these  two  minor  groups  with  each  other,  there  will 
not  be  the  least  hesitancy  in  determining  which  group  is  made  up 
of  men  of  the  greater  native  mental  endowments. 

High  in  five  groups.  Low  in  five  groups. 
Franklin.  Peabody. 

Washington.  Kent. 

Irving.  Channing. 

Webster.  Whitney. 

Farragut. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

GREAT  MEN  OF  ANCIENT  TIMES. 

Before  we  proceed  to  investigate  the  ancestry  of  great  men  of 
all  ages  from  all  countries,  it  is  proper  that  an  explanation  be  given 
of  the  method  by  which  results  are  arrived  at.  In  some  cases  the 
date  of  the  birth  of  the  great  man  is  given  and  that  of  his  father  is 
also  given,  in  which  event  we  have  all  the  data  necessary  to  locate 
exactly  the  great  man's  birth-rank.  In  a  great  many  cases,  how- 
ever, the  father's  birth  is  not  given,  but  there  is  such  collateral 
evidence  that  will  enable  us  to  locate  it  pretty  accurately  and  thus 
arrive  at  results  that  are  without  sensible  error.  The  manner  in 
which  these  estimates  are  made  may  be  best  illustrated  by  an 
example. 

METHOD  OF  ESTIMATING. 

In  the  Cyclopedia  I  find  that  de  Jussieu  is  the  name  of  a  French 
family  of  natural  philosophers,  who  have  been  styled  the  "botanical 
dynasty"  of  France.  The  founder  of  the  family,  whose  birth  is 
not  recorded,  had  a  son  Antoine,  born  in  1686,  a  son  Bernard,  born 
in  1699,  and  a  third  son  whose  name  and  birth  are  not  given.  This 
unrecorded  brother  had  a  son  Antoine  Laurent,  born  in  1748,  and 
another  but  unrecorded  son.  This  last  unrecorded  person  had  a 
son,  Laurent  Pierre,  born  in  1792.  The  problem  is  to  construct 
an  ancestry  for  Laurent  Pierre  de  Jussieu,  the  date  of  the  birth  of 
not  a  single  ancestor  of  whom  is  given.  To  do  this  a  diagram  is 

constructed  as  follows: 

116 


GREAT   MEN  OF  ANCIENT  TIMES. 

de  Jussieu, 
born  between  1639  and  1666 — say  1663. 


I  I  I 

Antoine,  b.  1686.  X-(i7o6?)  Bernard,  b.  1699. 


1  I 

Antoine  Laurent,  X-(i749?) 

b.  1748. 

Adrian,  b.  1797.   [49]  Laurent  Pierre, 

b.  1792. 


As  the  original  de  Jussieu  was  probably  not  less  than  20  when 
his  son  Antoine  was  born,  and  probably  not  more  than  60  when 
Bernard  was  born,  we  have  his  birth  located  somewhere  in  the 
27  years  between  1639  and  1666.  If  the  unrecorded  son  were  born 
before  1686  or  after  1699,  then  the  birth  of  the  original  de  Jussieu 
would  be  restricted  within  narrower  limits.  But  as  this  would 
require  an  unnecessary  assumption  we  can,  for  the  present,  pre- 
sume that  he  was  an  intermediate  son.  Having  determined  that 
the  original  de  Jussieu  was  born  between  1639  an<^  1666,  he  can, 
with  perfect  fairness,  be  assumed  to  have  been  born  midway  be- 
tween these  extremes,  or  in  1652-3,  and  we  may  figure  from  this 
date  to  the  birth  of  Laurent  Pierre  in  1792.  To  avoid  an  error, 
however,  that  might  lead  to  exaggeration,  I  assume  that  he  was 
as  young  as  reasonable,  say  between  22  and  25,  when  Antoine  was 
born.  If  we  assume  that  he  was  not  older  than  23  when  his  son 
Antoine  was  born,  then  we  have  his  birth  located  in  1663,  a  ^ate 
as  unfavorable  to  the  theory  of  great  age  as  is  reasonable  for  us 
to  assume.  Then  taking  the  difference  between  1792  and  1663 


Il8  GREAT   MEN  OF  ANCIENT  TIMES. 

we  have  129  years  as  the  least  reasonable  length  of  time  elapsing 
between  the  birth  of  the  founder  of  the  family  and  that  of  Laurent 
Pierre.  Dividing  this  by  three  we  get  an  average  of  43  years, 
which  would  give  us  three  successive  generations  born  in  our 
class  B.  Applying  these  figures  we  find  that  the  first  unrecorded 
person  was  probably  born  about  1706,  or  later  than  Bernard,  and 
the  second  unrecorded  person  probably  about  1749.  Inserting  these 
dates  in  the  diagram  we  find  that  they  accord  well  with  the  known 
date  of  birth  of  Antoine  Laurent.  We  know  that  Adrian,  the  son 
of  Antoine  Laurent,  is  in  class  A,  because  his  father  was  49  when 
he  was  born.  We  thus  have  in  the  de  Jussieu  family  four  births 
in  class  B  and  one  in  class  A.  Under  such  circumstances  I  have 
not  hesitated  to  rank  these  persons  in  this  way  because  I  know 
that  they  cannot  rank  lower,  while  there  is  a  possibility  and  even 
a  probability  that  some  of  them  rank  higher.  To  bring  these  per- 
sons as  low  as  class  C  would  be  to  make  Antoine  born  when  the 
founder  of  the  family  was  13  years  old  or  less,  an  assumption  that 
is  not  only  unreasonable  but  absurd. 

RELATIVE    BIRTH-RANKS    IN    LARGE    FAMILIES. 

In  looking  through  biographical  sketches,  when  no  definite  dates 
are  given,  we  have  to  seize  on  such  expressions  as  "eldest  son," 
"youngest  son,"  "third  child,"  etc.  Unaccompanied  by  information 
as  to  the  size  of  the  family,  such  expressions  tell  us  very  little, 
but  when  they  are  accompanied  by  the  statement  that  the  family 
consisted  of  10,  12  or  15  persons,  then  they  are  very  persuasive. 
To  determine  just  what  such  expressions  mean  I  had  recourse 
again  to  the  Redfield  Genealogy.  By  tabulating  a  large  number  of 
families  I  found  that  in  families  of  five,  fifty  per  cent  of  the  youngest 
children  were  equally  divided  between  classes  A  and  B;  in  families 


GREAT    MEN   OF  ANCIENT   TIMES.  IIQ 

of  seven,  seventy-five  per  cent  of  the  youngest  were  in  classes  A 
and  B ;  in  families  of  nine  there  were  no  youngest  born  lower  than 
class  B ;  and  in  families  of  eleven  or  more  there  were  no  youngest 
born  in  anything  but  class  A.  In  families  of  larger  sizes,  up  to 
eighteen,  I  found  substantially  the  same  thing,  i.  e.,  that  seventy- 
five  per  cent  of  the  seventh  children,  whether  the  youngest  or  an 
intermediate,  were  born  in  classes  A  and  B,  and  in  no  case  was  an 
eleventh  child  born  as  low  as  class  B.  Consequently  when  I  find 
that  Loyola  was  the  youngest  of  eleven  children  I  do  not  hesitate 
to  mark  him  as  having  been  born  in  class  A,  while  as  a  matter 
of  fact  he  may  belong  in  sub-class  A2  or  sub-class  A3. 

These  illustrations  will  give  an  idea  of  how  estimates  have 
sometimes  been  made  when  actual  facts  are  not  known.  I  have, 
however,  been  careful  not  to  make  estimates  except  where  the  facts 
warranted  them,  and  when  estimates  have  been  made  I  have  endeav- 
ored to  err  on  the  side  of  reducing  the  age  of  the  father  rather 
than  increasing  it.  In  certain  special  cases  I  have  used  special 
modes  of  estimating.  In  a  number  of  such  cases  I  will  call  atten- 
tion to  the  fact  of  the  estimate  and  explain  how  the  result  is  reached. 

GREATEST  MEN   IN   BIBLE   HISTORY. 

Turning  first  to  Biblical  history,  we  find  four  men  standing  out 
more  prominently  for  wisdom  and  intelligence  than  any  others. 
These  are  Joseph,  Moses,  David  and  Solomon.  Joseph  was  the 
eleventh  son  (not  child)  of  Jacob,  who  was  the  son  of  Isaac  when 
he  was  advanced  in  years,  and  Isaac  was  born  so  late  in  the  life 
of  his  parents  that  his  mother,  Sarai,  laughed  to  scorn  the  idea  that 
she  was  still  young  enough  to  have  a 'child.  According  to  the 
Bible  chronology,  Abraham  was  99  when  Isaac  was  born;  Isaac 
was  59  when  Jacob  was  born ;  and  Jacob  was  92  when  Joseph  was 


120  GREAT   MEN  OF  ANCIENT  TIMES. 

born.  Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  accuracy  of  these  figures, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  whatever  that  these  generations  were  slowly 
moving  ones.  When  we  look  further  back  than  Abraham  we  find 
six  or  eight  rapidly  moving  generations  of  nobodies.  In  other 
words,  we  find  that  the  Biblical  record  of  ages  corresponds  exactly 
with  the  Biblical  estimate  of  greatness.  As  there  does  not  appear 
to  be  anything  in  the  history  itself  requiring  that  this  should  be  so, 
we  may  conclude  that  it  is  an  accurate,  or  at  least  a  relatively 
accurate,  statement  of  facts  as  they  existed.  As  it  corresponds 
exactly  with  the  theory  of  use-inheritance  as  here  explained,  I  cer- 
tainly have  no  reason  to  question  its  accuracy. 

REMARKABLE    ANCESTRY    OF    MOSES. 

Moses  was  the  son  of  Amram,  who  was  the  son  of  Kohath,  who 
was  the  son  of  Levi.  From  the  birth  of  Levi  to  the  birth  of  Moses 
was  185  years,  which  divided  by  three  gives  61%  years  for  each 
generation.  Amram  married  his  aunt,  consequently  the  mother  of 
Moses  must  have  been  the  daughter  of  a  very  old  man.  Moses 
was  three  years  younger  than  Aaron,  and  his  sister,  at  the  time  of 
his  birth,  was  old  enough  to  be  trusted  with  the  very  delicate  diplo- 
matic mission  of  interviewing  the  daughter  of  Pharaoh.  What- 
ever may  be  the  actual  figures  for  the  ancestry  of  Moses  there  can 
be  no  doubt  but  he  takes  a  high  birth-rank. 

Levi  was  the  brother  of  Joseph  and  takes  the  birth-rank  of 
[81]  from  his  father  Jacob.  The  previous  ancestry  we  have  already 
traced  back  in  the  case  of  Joseph,  so  that  we  have  for  Moses  six 
generations  in  which  not  a  single  one  has  a  birth-rank  less  than 
[59]-  This  is  a  most  extraordinary  ancestry  and  is  not  paralleled 
by  any  other  known  record.  While  these  figures  are  extraordinary 
they  are  not  actually  past  belief.  The  elder  Cato  had  a  son  when 


GREAT   MEN   OF  ANCIENT  TIMES.  121 

he  was  eighty,  as  was  the  case  of  Leslie,  the  British  theological 
author,  and  "Old  Parr"  is  said  to  have  had  two  children  after  he 
had  passed  eighty  years  of  age.  The  father  of  Fox,  the  statesman, 
had  a  birth-rank  of  [78],  and  Amelie  Rives,  the  authoress,  had  a 
birth-rank  of  [71].  Nor  is  there  any  reason  for  doubting  the 
substantial  accuracy  of  these  ages.  Moses  was  a  finely  educated 
man  who  lived  in  an  age  and  a  country  in  which  there  was  an 
educated  class,  and  if  he  wrote  the  records  so  as  to  deceive  pos- 
terity he  did  something  which  is  at  variance  with  every  other  act 
of  his  life.  Nor  is  there  any  conceivable  reason  why  he  should 
do  such  a  thing.  It  is  not  at  all  necessary  to  assume  that  the 
records  of  the  immediate  ancestors  of  Moses  are  at  all  parallel  to 
the  Mosaic  records  of  the  misty  past  as  given  in  the  Book  of 
Genesis.  In  the  absence  of  detailed  information  we  might  corre- 
spondingly write  English  history  as  follows :  Plantagenets  lived 
an  hundred  and  thirty  and  one  years  and  begat  Tudors ;  and  Tudors 
lived  an  hundred  and  eighteen  years  and  begat  Stuarts,  etc.  In 
addition  to  this  remarkable  ancestry  on  the  paternal  side  of  Moses, 
we  have  a  case  of  in-breeding  through  the  marriage  of  Amram  to 
his  aunt,  and  the  consequent  bringing  of  this  remarkable  ancestry 
into  the  maternal  side. 

ESTIMATE  OF  MOSES. 

Accompanying  this  unparalleled  ancestry  we  have  in  Moses 
an  intellect  surpassing  anything  that  the  world  has  ever  seen.  We 
talk  glibly  of  the  impossibility  of  organizing  the  colored  men  and 
transporting  them  to  Africa,  but  if  such  a  thing  is  impossible  now, 
how  much  more  impossible  would  such  a  plan  have  appeared  if 
proposed  before  1860?  And  yet  freeing  the  Israelites  from 
Egyptian  bondage  and  removing  them  to  beyond  the  Red  Sea  was 


122  GREAT   MEN  OF  ANCIENT  TIMES. 

not  one  whit  less  difficult  than  would  have  been  the  same  operation 
applied  to  the  American  negro  before  the  Rebellion.  But  given  the 
Hebrews  liberated,  what  other  character  in  all  history  could  un- 
aided guide  and  control  a  mob  of  a  million  and  a  half  o<f  liberated 
slaves?  But  apart  from  these  achievements,  the  Mosaic  laws  are 
the  finest  adaptation  of  morality  to  existing  circumstances  ever 
known,  and  the  decalogue  is  unequalled  by  anything  ever  written 
by  the  hand  of  man. 

SOLOMON. 

Solomon  was  born  when  his  father  David  was  53  years  old, 
and  David  was  the  youngest  of  eleven  sons  of  Jesse.  If  Jesse  had 
any  daughters  at  all,  David  must  have  come  in  the  sub-class  A3. 
According  to  the  generally  accepted  theories  o>f  heredity  the  great 
wisdom  of  Solomon  was  largely  inherited  from  his  father  David, 
and  was  increased  in  the  son  by  a  mysterious  sort  of  "advanta- 
geous variation."  By  an  equally  mysterious  sort  of  disadvantageous 
variation  the  greatness  of  Solomon  was  not  perpetuated  in  his  son 
Rehoboam.  According  to  the  theory  here  advocated,  the  wisdom 
of  Solomon  was  due  partly  to  the  fact  that  David  was  born  with 
a  well-organized  brain,  and  partly  to  the  fact  that  he  lived  many 
years  and  acquired  much  wisdom  before  Solomon  was  conceived. 
Going  back  another  step,  the  theory  explains  David's  inherited 
brain  as  due  to  the  fact  that  Jesse  lived  long  and  developed  his 
brain  before  David  was  conceived.  In  other  words,  the  theory 
furnishes  a  plain,  reasonable,  and  easily  understood  explanation 
for  what  has  been  considered  mysterious  and  wholly  inexplicable. 
If  asked  why  Solomon's  wisdom  was  not  passed  along  to  the  next 
generation,  it  is  only  necessary  to  point  to  the  fact  that  Rehoboam. 
the  son  and  heir  of  Solomon,  was  conceived  when  Solomon  was 


GREAT   MEN  OF  ANCIENT  TIMES.  123 

only  1 6  years  old,  and  consequently  inherited  only  the  immature 
development  of  his  father.  Consider  Solomon  as  wise  as  we  may, 
we  cannot  conceive  him  as  being  very  wise  at  the  age  of  16.  There 
is  nothing  mysterious  about  this,  no  "advantageous"  or  "disad- 
vantageous" variation,  but  a  plain  result  arising  from  a  very  plain 

cause. 

CONFUCIUS. 

Nearly  2,500  years  ago  there  lived  in  China  a  man  by  the  name 
of  Shoo-leang-heih,  who  was  noted  for  his  strength  and  courage, 
who  had  served  with  distinction  as  a  soldier  and  who  had  been 
appointed  chief  magistrate  of  the  province  of  Tseaou-y.  When 
advanced  in  years  he  found  hiroself  a  widower  with  nine  children, 
all  girls — his  only  son  having  died  in  infancy.  Although  already 
an  old  man  he  decided  upon  marrying  again  in  the  hope  of  having 
a  son  to  continue  the  family  in  the  male  line.  Acting  on  this 
impulse,  he  addressed  himself  to  the  head  of  the  house  of  Yen, 
requesting  one  of  his  daughters  in  marriage.  Yen  was  loath  to 
give  one  of  his  daughters  in  marriage  to  so  old  a  man,  but,  as 
Shoo-leang-heih  was  too  great  and  powerful  a  person  to  be  ignored, 
he  called  his  three  daughters  before  him  and  stated  the  case.  Find- 
ing that  the  two  elder  daughters  maintained  silence  to  even  the 
proposition  of  marrying  a  chief  magistrate,  the  youngest  daughter 
spoke  up  and  said  that  she  would  do  her  father's  bidding.  From 
this  very  old  man,  Shoo-leang-heih,  and  the  youngest  daughter 
of  another  old  man,  sprang  Confucius,  the  greatest  man  in  Chi- 
nese history  and  one  of  the  greatest  men  who  ever  lived.  This 
does  not  tell  us  how  old  Shoo-leang-heih  was  at  the  time  of  his 
son's  birth,  but  the  probabilities  are  that  he  was  considerable  over 
sixty  and  perhaps  over  seventy  years  of  age.  Time  has  to  be 
provided  for  him  to  acquire  distinction  as  a  soldier,  to  be  appointed 


124  GREAT   MEN  OF  ANCIENT  TIMES. 

chief  magistrate,  to  marry,  to  have  ten  children,  to  become  a 
widower  and  to  marry  again.  In  a  country  where  people  move  as 
deliberately  as  they  do  in  China  this  must  have  required  a  good 

many  years. 

LAO-TSE. 

Contemporary  with  Confucius  was  Lao-tse,  a  Chinaman  in  some 
respects  greater  even  than  Confucius.  There  is  in  Chinese  litera- 
ture an  account  of  an  interview  between  these  two  great  philos- 
ophers in  which  Confucius  appears  at  a  disadvantage.  The  teach- 
ings of  Lao-tse  were  purely  moral  and  they  more  nearly  resem- 
bled those  of  Jesus  than  did  those  of  any  other  man.  Lao-tse's 
father  was  not  married  until  seventy  years  of  age,  and  the  accounts 
state  that  his  mother  was  a  very  old  woman. 

BUDDHA. 

At  a  date  not  far  from  when  Confucius  was  born,  there  was 
born  in  India  the  greatest  man  India  ever  produced.  "The  facts 
of  Buddha's  mortal  life  may  be  briefly  told.  His  father  had  mar- 
ried sisters,  Mahamaya  .  and  Mahaprajapati.  Mahamaya,  having 
come  to  her  forty-fifth  year,  was  about  to  be  delivered  of  her  first 
child,  and,  in  accordance  with  the  Hindu  custom,  had  started  for 
her  father's  home.  On  the  way  she  rested  under  a  satin  tree, 
and  there  gave  birth  to  her  boy.  Here  legend  steps  in  with 
marvels."  * 

This  places  Buddha  in  sub-class  A3  from  his  mother.  I  do 
not  have  the  age  of  his  father,  but  the  probabilities  are  that  he 
was  advanced  in  years,  otherwise  he  would  have  been  apt  to  neg- 
lect a  44-year  old  wife  for  the  charms  of  some  younger  female. 


*  Sir  Edwin  Arnold. 


GREAT   MEN  OF  ANCIENT  TIMES.  125 

We  have  confirmation  of  this  in  Arnold's  Light  of  Asia,  in  which 
the  father  is  spoken  of  as  being  an  old  man. 

MOHAMMED. 

Mohammed,  born  in  570,  was  the  son  of  Abdaliah,  born  in 
545,  consequently  Mohammed  comes  in  class  b  and,  with  the 
exception  of  Napoleon,  is  the  only  really  great  man  born  so  low  in 
the  scale.  When  we  look  further  into-  his  ancestry  we  find  that 
Abdaliah  was  the  tenth  son  of  Abd  al  Muttalib,  born  before  499, 
son  of  Hashim,  who  was  the  youngest  son  of  Abd  Menaf,  who 
was  the  youngest  son  of  Cossai.  We  also  find  that  Hashim  was 
advanced  in  years  when  he  married  Salma,  who  was  a  woman  of 
much  character  and  of  mature  years,  who  had  been  previously 
married  and  who  had  two  sons.  Although  Mohammed  was  born 
in  class  b,  his  father  comes  in  class  A,  and  perhaps  is  one  of  the 
sub-classes,  and  all  of  the  other  known  births  are  also  of  high 
rank.  We  have  only  to  assume  that  his  mother  was  also  well  born 
to  have  all  the  elements  necessary  to  account  for  his  greatness 
in  spite  o»f  the  comparative  youth  of  his  father.  That  Abdaliah 
was  more  than  ordinarily  developed  for  his  years  we  learn  from 
the  statement  that  he  was  a  merchant  on  his  own  responsibility, 
and  that  he  died  two  months  after  the  birth  of  Mohammed. 

GREECE  AND  ROME  IN   ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  TIMES. 

In  Southern  Europe,  at  the  present  day,  men  and  women  mature 
early,  marry  early,  have  children  in  early  life,  and  are  worn  out 
at  an  age  when  they  should  be  in  robust  health.  While  this  is 
what  happens  now,  such  was  not  the  case  when  Greece  and  Rome 
produced  the  men  who  have  been  the  wonders  of  the  world  during 
the  past  2,000  years.  The  difference  between  the  mental  ability 
of  the  modern  Greek  and  Italian,  and  that  of  those  who  flourished 


126  GREAT   MEN  OF  ANCIENT  TIMES. 

in  the  days  of  Pericles  and  Caesar,  is  not  more  sharply  marked 
than  is  the  difference  between  the  ages  of  reproduction  now  and 
then. 

For  several  hundred  years  Sparta  was  governed  by  the  laws  of 
Lycurgus.  These  laws  took  children  from  their  parents  and  reared 
them  in  a  gymnasium.  At  the  age  of  thirty  the  men  were  per- 
mitted to  marry.  The  Spartan  training  related  only  to  the  phys- 
ical, and  as  a  consequence  they  developed  the  physique.  The 
mental  development  being  neglected,  the  only  great  men  produced 
under  the  Lycurgan  system  were  great  generals. 

History  tells  us  that  in  Athens  the  men  usually  married  at  the 
age  of  thirty-five.  In  contradistinction  to  the  practice  in  Sparta, 
the  Athenian  youths  were  educated  for  generations,  and  the  result 
was  that  during  the  latter  part  of  several  hundred  years  of  such 
education  we  find  the  majority  of  the  men  who  made  Greece 
famous. 

In  examining  the  ancestry  of  famous  Greeks  I  have  been  much 
hampered  by  the  lack  of  data.  For  Socrates  I  can  find  only  that 
he  was  the  son  of  an  artist  and  a  mid-wife.  In  many  other  cases 
I  have  the  names  of  a  long  line  of  ancestors,  but  no  dates  that  will 
give  the  information  I  seek.  I  have,  however,  been  able  to  find 
enough  to  give  a  pretty  clear  idea  of  what  occurred. 

ALEXANDER   THE   GREAT. 

Alexander  the  Great  is  perhaps  the  most  famous  of  Grecians, 
but  that  is  quite  a  different  thing  from  being  the  man  of  greatest 
mental  ability.  That  in  some  respects  he  was  mentally  great  there 
can  be  no  doubt,  but  the  history  of  his  excesses,  his  vanity,  and 
the  circumstances  under  which  his  life  ended  show  that  he  lacked 
that  stability  which  characterizes  true  mental  greatness.  He  was 


GREAT   MEN  OF  ANCIENT  TIMES. 

born  in  356  B.  C,  and  was  the  son  of  Philip  II  of  Macedon,  who 
was  born  382  B.  C.  He  therefore  comes  in  class  b.  When  con- 
trasted with  his  father  there  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  Philip 
was  the  greater  man  mentally.  It  was  Philip  who  taught  Alexan- 
der the  art  of  war,  who  invented  the  celebrated  Macedonian  pha- 
lanx, who  by  skill,  ability  and  diplomacy  raised  Macedonia  to 
supremacy  in  Grecian  affairs,  and  who  furnished  all  of  the  material 
which  Alexander  afterwards  used  in  his  conquests.  Philip  had 
already  planned,  and  partly  organized,  the  Persian  invasion  that 
his  son  subsequently  carried  out,  and  if  he  had  not  been  assassi- 
nated at  his  daughter's  wedding  it  might  have  been  Philip  the  Great 
instead  of  Alexander  the  Great. 

PHILIP  OF  MACEDON. 

Philip  was  the  son  of  Amyntas  II,  who  was  the  son  of 
Alexander  I,  son  of  Amyntas  I.  We  are  not  informed  when 
Amyntas  II  was  born,  but  we  learn  that  he  contested  the  right 
to  the  throne  forty-seven  years  before  his  son  was  born.  Whether 
Philip  be  placed  in  class  A  or  one  of  the  sub-classes  A2  or  A3  will 
depend  upon  how  young  Amyntas  II  was  when  he  made  this  con- 
test. It  will  not  do  to  make  him  very  young,  as  that  would  remove 
him  an  unreasonable  distance  from  his  grandfather,  because,  when 
he  did  subsequently  become  king,  it  was  106  years  after  his  grand- 
father had  ascended  the  throne.  If  Amyntas  II  was  ten  years  old 
at  the  time  of  this  contest,  Philip  would  be  in  sub-class  A3,  and  he 
is  placed  there  as  a  reasonable  estimate. 

ARISTOTLE. 

Aristotle  was  born  384  B.  C.,  and  was  the  son  of  Nichomachus, 
friend  and  physician  in  ordinary  to  King  Amyntas  II.  The  "phy- 
sician in  ordinary"  to  a  king  is  not  likely  to  be  a  young  man, 


I28  GREAT   MEN  OF  ANCIENT  TIMES. 

especially  in  a  country  in  which  there  were  many  wise  old  men, 
and  when  the  king  is  an  old  man  it  is  practically  certain  that  his 
physician  was  not  a  young  man.  When  we  learn  that  this  physi- 
cian was  also  the  personal  friend  of  the  king,  it  is  reasonable  to 
assume  that  they  were  about  the  same  age.  As  Amyntas  II  was 
in  the  neighborhood  of  sixty  when  Aristotle  was  born,  the  most 
reasonable  place  to  locate  Aristotle  is  in  sub-class  A3.  Any  other 
assumption  would  do  violence  to  known  facts.  For  an  estimate 
of  the  greatness  of  Aristotle  I  cannot  do  better  than  to  quote  from 
Myers'  Ancient  History.  "As  Socrates  was  surpassed  by  his  pupil 
Plato,  so  in  turn  was  Plato  excelled  by  his  disciple  Aristotle,  'the 
master  of  those  who  know/  In  him  the  philosophical  genius  of 
the  Hellenic  intellect  reached  its  culmination.  It  may  be  doubted 
whether  all  the  ages  since  his  time  has  produced  so  profound  an 
intellect  as  his."  Plato  called  him  the -"Mind  of  the  school,"  and 
when  he  was  absent  would  say,  "Intellect  is  not  here  to-day." 

ALCIBIADES. 

Alcibiades,  the  great  Athenian  general,  was  born  about  450 
B.  C.  He  was  son  of  Cleinias,  who  greatly  distinguished  himself 
in  the  naval  battle  at  Artemisium  in  480  B.  C.  We  do  not  have 
the  date  of  Cleinias'  birth,  but  as  the  battle  o>f  Artemisiumi  was 
fought  thirty  years  before  the  birth  of  Alcibiades,  and  as  young 
Athenians  were  never  sent  on  foreign  military  service  before  twenty 
years  of  age,  he  could  not  have  been  less  than  fifty  at  the  time  of 
his  son's  birth.  As  the  probabilities  that  a  man  will  "be  greatly 
distinguished"  before  he  is  twenty-five  are  rather  remote,  we  can 
safely  assume  that  Alcibiades  belongs  in  sub-class  A2. 

PERICLES. 

Pericles,  the  greatest  Athenian  statesman,  was  born  495  B.  C., 
and  was  the  son  of  Xantippus  and  Agarista.  I  have  spent  much 


RICHARD  OWEN   [50] 


TASSO    [51] 


GREAT   MEN  OF  ANCIENT  TIMES.  1 29 

time  trying  to  obtain  the  birth-rank  of  Pericles,  but  with  only 
partial  results.  I  have  the  names  oi  ten  o<f  his  ancestors  and  some 
dates  connected  with  their  lives,  but  nothing  that  will  give  a  near 
approximation  to  dates  of  births.  I  find,  however,  that  six  genera- 
tions averaged  between  thirty-six  and  forty  years.  I  also  find  that 
Agarista's  aunt,  Coesyra,  was  married  in  554  B.  C.  If  we  assume 
that  she  was  twenty-one  at  that  time,  and  give  the  date  thus  obtained 
as  a  probable  date  for  the  birth  of  her  brother  Hippocrates  (the 
father  of  Agarista),  then  we  have  eighty  years  to  divide  between 
a  father  and  a  mother  in  the  ancestry  of  Pericles.  If  this  division 
be  made  to  correspond  to  the  Athenian  marriages  of  which  I  have 
obtained  records,  then  we  would  have  about  thirty  for  his  mother, 
and  fifty  for  his  father  and  maternal  grandfather.  This  would 
place  Pericles  in  class  A  or  sub-class  A2,  but  there  is  so  much 
hypo-thesis  about  this  that  it  is  possible  that  he  was  born  in  class  B 
or  even  class  C.  I  have,  therefore,  not  ranked  him  in  the  lists  I 
have  given,  and  only  explain  the  case  to  show  the  difficulties  in 
obtaining  accurate  information,  and  to  show  that  he  takes  some 
rank  much  above  the  average. 

Archidamus  II  became  king  of  Sparta  in  469  B.  C.  Archid- 
amus  V  became  king  in  240  B.  C.  Between  these  two  there  are 
six  generations  and  229  years,  which  gives  an  average  of  thirty-eight 
years  for  each  step,  or  more  than  five  years  above  the  average  in 
the  United  States  150  years  ago. 

PTOLEMY  PHILADELPHIA. 

Ptolemy  II,  surnamed  Philadelphus,  was  the  greatest  of  the 
Ptolemys.  He  was  born  in  309  B.  C,  and  was  son  of  Ptolemy  I, 
who  was  born  in  367  B.  C.  He  therefore  comes  in  sub-class  A3. 
Being  of  Greek  descent,  he  is  naturally  included  at  this  point. 


130  GREAT  MEN  OF  ANCIENT  TIMES. 

In  all  I  have  looked  for  the  ancestry  of  more  than  a  hundred 
of  the  great  men  of  Greece,  but  those  given  are  the  only  ones  about 
whom  I  have  been  able  to  obtain  any  definite  information.  There 
is  an  exception  to  this  in  that  I  have  found  the  rank  of  a  number 
of  persons  who  exist  in  history  only  because  they  were  sons  of 
great  men.  In  every  such  case  I  have  found  that  they  were  born 
during  the  earlier  years  of  their  father's  lives.  As  they  are  all 
nobodies,  it  is  not  necessary  to  give  a  list  of  them.  They  are 
mentioned  here  because  their  existence  gives  negative  evidence  in 
support  of  the  theory  of  use-inheritance. 

Although  the  list  of  Greeks  here  given  is  short,  enough  has  been 
given  to  show  that  the  age  of  reproduction  2,200  to  2,500  years 
ago  was  very  different  from  what  it  is  today,  and  from  this  show- 
ing we  have  an  explanation  of  the  marvelous  Greek  intelligence. 

AUGUSTUS. 

Augustus  Caesar,  the  first  Emperor  of  Rome,  was  born  in  63 
B.  C,  and  was  undoubtedly  the  greatest  man,  from  the  mental 
standpoint,  ever  produced  in  the  Roman  world.  Merivale  says : 
"The  establishment  of  the  Roman  empire  was,  after  all,  the  greatest 
political  work  that  any  human  being  ever  wrought.  The  achieve- 
ments of  Alexander,  of  Caesar,  of  Charlemagne,  of  Napoleon,  are 
not  to  be  compared  with  it  for  a  moment."  Octavius,  surnamed 
Augustus  because  of  his  intellect,  a  name  hitherto  sacred  to  the 
gods,  found  a  republic  crumbling  to  fragments  and  left  it  an  empire, 
the  greatest  and  most  powerful  of  ancient  history.  He  accomplished 
with  peace  and  apparent  ease  that  which  Julius  Caesar  dared  not 
approach,  and  for  which  he  was  assassinated  on  simple  suspicion. 
The  tact,  skill,  diplomacy  and  mental  ability  that  could  accomplish 
this  are  not  to  be  lightly  considered. 


GREAT   MEN  OF  ANCIENT  TIMES.  13! 

I  do  not  have  the  date  of  birth  of  any  of  the  ancestors  of  Augus- 
tus, but  I  find  that  his  great-grandfather  was  present  at  the  battle 
of  Cannae,  216  B.  C,  and  was  one  of  the  few  who  escaped  alive. 
If  this  ancestor  were  eighteen  at  that  time,  then  his  birth  would 
be  located  in  234  B.  C,  and  we  have  (234 — 63)^3—57  years 
each  for  three  generations  to  Augustus.  The  great-grandfather 
could  hardly  be  younger  than  eighteen,  and  very  likely  he  was 
older,  in  which  case  the  steps  from  father  to  son  would  average 
more  than  fifty-seven  years  each.  To  contemplate  such  a  distance 
I  will  ask  the  reader  how  many  cases  he  knows  of  a  son  being  born 
to  a  father  fifty-seven  years  old,  and  if  he  ever  heard  of  such  a 
thing  happening  twice  in  succession,  to  say  nothing  of  three  times. 

OTHER  FAMOUS  ROMANS. 

Julius  Caesar  was  born  100  B.  C.  Of  his  ancestors  I  have 
nothing,  but  I  find  that  his  son  Caesarion  was  born  when  Caesar 
was  fifty-three  years  old,  which  simply  illustrates  the  fact  that 
the  Romans  reproduced  late  in  life. 

Scipio  Africanus  Major  was  born  243  B.  C.  I  do  not  have  the 
birth  of  any  of  his  ancestors,  but  going  back  to  his  great-grand- 
father I  find  that  the  distance  between  the  times  when  the  father, 
the  grandfather  and  the  great-grandfather  became  consuls  aver- 
ages forty  years. 

Sulla  was  dictator  in  8.1  B.  C.  His  grandfather  was  praetor 
105  years  previous,  which  would  make  the  average  distance  be- 
tween generations  fifty-two  or  fifty-three,  assuming  that  the  ages 
at  which  they  held  office  were  the  same.  They  might  differ  widely, 
yet  Sulla  would  rank  high  in  our  scale. 

One  Cato  was  consul,  195  B.  C.    Three  generations  later  another 
Cato  was  praetor,  in  54  B.  C.,  making  an  average  of  forty-seven 


GREAT   MEN  OF  ANCIENT  TIMES. 

years  between  generations.  One  Cato  had  a  son  after  he  was 
eighty  years  of  age. 

Pliny  the  elder  was  born  in  A.  D.  23,  and  Pliny  the  younger 
(son  of  the  elder's  sister)  was  born  thirty-nine  years  later.  If  the 
sister  was  younger  than  her  brother  she  would  rank  high  from 
her  father;  if  she  was  older,  then  Pliny  the  younger  would  rank 
very  high  from  his  mother.  I  may  remark  here  that  I  have  observed 
that  Greek  and  Roman  men  were  often  ten,  twenty  and  even  thirty 
years  older  than  their  wives. 

The  Grecchi  were  not  the  least  famous  of  the  old  Romans. 
Sempronius  Grecchus  had  one  son  born  when  he  was  forty-six 
and  another  of  greater  ability  when  he  was  fifty-five. 

Marcellus  Claudius  was  the  name  of  the  most  illustrious  plebeian 
family  of  the  Claudia  Gens.  For  seven  generations  the  time 
between  generations  averaged  slightly  over  forty  years,  or  more 
than  seven  years  greater  than  our  standard  average. 

Seneca  was  born  a  few  years  before  the  Christian  era  and  com- 
mitted suicide  A.  D.  65  at  the  order  of  Nero,  who  feared  him.  "A 
few  years"  probably  means  less  than  ten.  If  it  means  more,  then 
Nero  must  have  ordered  a  very  old  man  to  commit  suicide.  The 
father  of  Seneca  was  born  61  B.  C,  and  consequently  Seneca  must 
come  in  sub-class  A2  or  sub-class  A3. 

More  illustrations  might  be  given,  but  these  are  sufficient  to 
show  what  it  was  that  produced  the  great  men  of  Rome,  and  it  is 
only  necessary  to  consider  the  marriage  customs  of  the  present 
day  to  see  why  Rome  does  not  produce  them  now. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

GREAT   MEN   OF  MODERN   HISTORY. 

In  treating  of  the  great  men  born  since  the  beginning  of  the 
Christian  era  I  shall  take  up  in  detail  those  who,  for  some  special 
reason,  require  special  mention.  The  others  will  be  given  in 
tables  with  their  birth-ranks  stated.  In  doing  this  there  is  no  pre- 
tense that  all  of  the  great  men  who  deserve  mention  are  included. 
In  fact,  such  an  effort  would  be  futile,  because  of  the  impossi- 
bility of  drawing  any  hard  and  fast  line  to  determine  who  should 
be  included  and  who  should  not.  As  a  consequence  I  have  probably 
overlooked  a  good  many  men  who  are  greater  than  some  of  those 
I  have  included  in  the  lists.  I  have  purposely  omitted  a  good  many 
hereditary  monarchs  who  have  become  famous  in  the  world's 
history,  because  it  is  difficult  to  know  how  much  of  their  greatness 
was  due  to  the  circumstances  of  their  reigns,  to  contemporary 
statesmen,  and  to  the  generals  who  fought  their  battles.  For  the 
same  reason  I  have  discriminated  against  the  Jierditary  nobility, 
because  position,  wealth,  and  family  influence  often  enable  men 
to  achieve  a  fame  to  which  they  would  be  utterly  unable  to  aspire 
if  it  were  not  for  these  advantages.  As  a  consequence  there  are 
omitted  from  class  A  and  B  a  number  of  kings  and  noblemen  who 
might  be  included  in  them.  Their  inclusion  would  prove  nothing, 
because  there  is  another  possible  explanation  of  their  greatness. 
I  have  made  an  exception,  however,  in  the  cases  of  some  men  who, 
like  Alfred  the  Great  and  Peter  the  Great,  were  so  pre-eminent 
that  it  is  plainly  evident  that  their  greatness  is  independent  of 

their  positions. 

133 


134  GREAT  MEN  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

ALFRED  THE  GREAT. 

Alfred  the  Great  was  undoubtedly  the  greatest  and  wisest  of 
English  rulers.  He  was  born  in  849,  and  was  the  son  of  Ethel- 
wulf,  who  was  probably  born  before  800.  Ethelwulf  was  a  studious 
man  and  would  probably  have  entered  holy  orders  if  he  had  not 
been  an  only  son,  to  prevent  which  action  he  was  made  King  of 
Kent  in  828.  We  read  that  "Ethelwulf  the  old  king  died  in  858." 
If  "the  old  king"  means  a  man  of  sixty  or  more,  then  Alfred  takes 
rank  in  sub-class  A2. 

LORD  BACON. 

Sir  Francis  Bacon,  born  1561,  is  usually  credited  with  having 
the  greatest  intellect  of  any  man  born  in  the  British  Isles.  He 
was  the  youngest  son  of  Sir  Nicholas  Bacon,  who  was  born  in 
1509,  and  who  was  consequently  over  fifty-two  years  of  age  when 
his  son  was  born.  Bacon's  mother  was  thirty-three  when  he  was 
born,  and  she  is  said  to  have  been  the  best  and  most  profoundly 
educated  woman  in  all  England.  Bacon,  therefore,  inherited  the 
effect  of  many  years  of  brain  use  by  his  father,  and  the  effect  of 
extraordinary  brain  activity  by  his  mother. 

SHAKESPEARE. 

William  Shakespeare,  born  1564,  is  naturally  associated  with 
Bacon  because  of  the  efforts  made  to  show  that  Bacon  was  the 
real  author  of  what  are  known  as  Shakespeare's  plays.  Unfor- 
tunately I  am  not  able  to  obtain  much  accurate  information  about 
Shakespeare's  ancestors,  because  if  I  could  it  would  throw  much 
light  on  the  Bacon-Shakespeare  controversy.  He  was  the  son 
of  John,  who  was  the  younger  son  of  Richard.  John  left  home 
in  1551,  so  that  he  could  not  have  been  less  than  thirty- four  or 


GREAT  MEN  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

thirty-five  when  the  poet  was  born.     The  last  known  of  him  was 
in    1 60 1,   so  that  there  is  a  possible   age-range  from  thirty-five 
to  forty-five.     The  grandfather,  Richard,  died  about  four  years 
before  Shakespeare   was  born,   and,   as   the   family  is  known   to 
have  been  a  long-lived  one,   we  can  assume  two  steps  of  about 
forty  years  each  in  Shakespeare's  immediate  male  ancestry.     That 
the  grandfather  was  probably  pretty  old  may  be  inferred  from  the 
fact  that  his  will  was  dated  seventeen  or  eighteen  years  before 
his   death.      Shakespeare's  mother  was  Mary  Arden,   the  eighth 
and  youngest  child  of  Robert  Arden,  who  was  of  a  younger  branch 
of    the    Arden  family.     From    my  age    table  I  find  that    seven- 
elevenths  of  eighth  children  are  born  in  class  A,  the  other  four- 
elevenths  being  divided  between  classes  B  and  C.     The  chances 
are,  therefore,  nearly  two  to  one  that  Shakespeare's  mother  was 
born  in  class  A.     We  also  find  that  Robert  Arden  was  mentioned 
in  an  indenture  in  1501.     If  he  were  fifteen  at  the  time  (a  prob- 
able age)    we  would  have  seventy-eight  years  between  the  birth 
of  Robert  Arden  and  that  of  William  Shakespeare.     Dividing  this 
so  as  to  place  Mary  Arden  in  class  A,  we  would  have  thirty-three 
years  for  the  mother  and  forty-five  years  for  the  maternal  grand- 
father.   I  also  find  that  husbands  average  three  or  four  years  older 
than  their  wives,  which  would  make  Shakespeare's  father  about 
thirty-six  or  thirty-seven  in  1564.     This  corresponds  well  with  the 
previous  estimate  that  he  could  not  very  well  have  been  less  than 
thirty-four  or  thirty-five.     The  result  of  this  is  that  Shakespeare 
was  probably  born  in  class  C  or  D,  the  father  in  class  A  or  B, 
and  the  mother  in  class  A.    If  this  estimate  be  reasonably  accurate, 
we  have  all  of  the  elements  to  account  for  Shakespeare  being  a 
great  man,  provided  his  parents  were  mentally  active.    The  meagre 
accounts  that  we  have  of  John  indicate  that  he  was  a  man  having 


136  GREAT  MEN  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

his  own  ideas  on  subjects,  and  was  not  averse  to  coming  into  con- 
flict with  the  town  authorities  when  it  suited  his  business  interests 
to  do  so.  As  to  the  mental  ability  of  Mary  Arden,  we  have  some 
information  in  the  fact  that,  though  the  youngest  of  the  family, 
she  was,  in  1556,  made  the  executor  of  her  father's  will.  After 
eight  years  more  in  which  to  exercise  and  use  this  mental  ability 
she  became  the  mother  of  William  Shakespeare. 

THE  HERSCHELS. 

The  Herschels,  astronomers,  though  famous,  were  persons 
whose  mental  ability  was  greater  than  their  fame.  Sir  John  Her- 
schel,  born  in  1792,  was  son  of  Sir  William,  who  was  born  in  1738, 
who  was  son  of  Isaac,  born  1707,  youngest  son  of  Abraham,  son 
of  Hans,  who  quitted  Moravia  early  in  the  seventeenth  century 
on  religious  grounds.  Caroline  Herschel,  born  1750,  was  sister 
of  Sir  William.  If  Hans  "quitted  Moravia  early  in  the  seven- 
teenth century"  on  his  own  responsibility,  he  must  have  been  born 
more  than  a  hundred  years  before  his  grandson  Isaac.  That  he 
was  alive  at  all  early  in  the  seventeenth  century  would  make  the 
father  and  grandfather  of  Sir  William  take  high  rank,  though  Sir 
William  himself  ranks  only  in  class  e.  Sir  John  ranks  in  sub- 
class  A2,  as  his  father  was  fifty- four  when  he  was  born,  and  Caro- 
line ranks  in  class  B,  as  her  father  was  forty-three  when  she  was 
born. 

THE  DARWINS. 

In  looking  for  the  ancestry  of  Charles  Darwin,  born  1809,  I 
found  that  he  was  the  son  of  a  physician  and  a  grandson  of  Dr. 
Erasmus  Darwin.  After  seeing  the  same  statement  in  three  or 
four  different  places,  I  became  curious  to  know  who  this  physician 
was.  I  then  found  that  he  was  Robert  Waring  Darwin,  born  in 


GREAT  MEN  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


137 


1766,  and  that  Dr.  Erasmus  was  the  fourth  son  of  Robert,  who 
was  the  second  son  of  William,  who  was  the  eldest  son  of  William, 
Sr.,  born  in  1620.  This  gives  in  years  between  Erasmus  and 
the  first  William,  which,  divided  by  three,  gives  an  average  of 
thirty-seven  years  in  the  ancestry  of  Dr.  Erasmus.  But  eldest, 
second  and  fourth  sons  are  not  born  from  the  same  age  of  parents. 
Having  recourse  to  my  tables  and  dividing  this  in  years  propor- 


fo 


30 


%08EftT 


PIG.  8—  DIAGRAM  OF  THE  DARWINS,  SHOWING  BIRTH-RANKS  FOR  THREE 

GENERATIONS. 

tionally,  I  found  the  probable  periods  to  be  thirty-one,  thirty-five 
and  forty-five  years  respectively.  This  would  place  Erasmus 
Darwin  in  class  A,  and  may  be  considered  a  fairly  accurate  esti- 
mate. Robert  Waring  being  forty-three,  places  Charles  Darwin 
in  class  B  ;  Erasmus  being  thirty-five,  places  Robert  in  class  D  ;  and 
we  have  just  estimated  Erasmus  in  class  A.  Taking  these  ages 
and  drawing  a  diagram  (Fig.  8)  for  them,  we  have  a  curve  that 
represents  the  birth-ranks  for  three  generations.  If  we  should 
draw  a  curve  representing  the  mental  greatness  of  these  three 
men,  it  would  be  practically  the  same  line.  The  only  fault  to  be 


138  GREAT  MEN  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

found  with  it  is  that  Charles  ranks  lower  than  Erasmus,  while 
he  should  rank  'higher,  if  anything.  But  in  here  comes  another 
element  which  has  so  far  been  ignored.  The  wife  of  Robert 
and  mother  of  Charles  was  Susannah  Wedgwood,  daughter  of 
Josiah  Wedgwood,  of  pottery  fame,  who  was  born  in  1730  and 
who  was  the  thirteenth  child  and  youngest  son  of  Thomas,  born 
in  1687.  The  maternal  grandfather  of  Charles  thus  comes  in 
class  B,  while  the  seventy-nine  years  from  1730  to  1809  also  places 
Susannah  in  high  rank.  We  thus  have  in  Charles  Darwin  a  very 
unusual  accumulation  of  years  on  the  maternal  side  of  the  house 
that  does  not,  and  naturally  cannot,  appear  in  the  diagram. 

JOHN    HUNTER. 

John  Hunter,  born  1728,  was  England's  greatest  surgeon  and 
physiologist,  and  an  author  of  note.  He  was  the  youngest  of  ten 
children  and  was  born  when  his  father  was  65  years  old,  so  that 
it  is  quite  evident  that  old  men  may  have  prominent  sons,  and  that 
there  is  plenty  of  opportunity  for  many  of  those  who  read  these 
pages. 

WILLIAM   PITT. 

William  Pitt,  the  younger,  was  born  in  1759,  and  was  the 
son  of  an  almost  equally  famous  William  Pitt,  born  in  1708.  The 
elder  Pitt  was  son  of  Robert,  who  was  son  of  Thomas,  who  was 
a  youngest  son.  The  mother  of  the  elder  Pitt  was  a  youngest 
daughter. 

OLIVER  CROMWELL. 

Oliver  Cromwell,  born  in  1599,  was  the  fifth  child  of  Robert, 
who  was  the  youngest  son  of  Sir  Henry.  The  mother  of  Crom- 
well was  descended  from  the  youngest  son  of  Alexander,  lord 
steward  of  Scotland.  Charles  I,  whom  Cromwell  displaced,  was 


GREAT  MEN  OF  MODERN  HISTORY.  139 

also  descended  from  Alexander,  but  Cromwell  was  three  genera- 
tions nearer  Alexander  than  was  Charles  I.  Three  generations 
in  a  total  of  eight,  from  Charles  I  back  to  Alexander,  makes  a 
very  great  difference  in  the  length  of  time  elapsing  from  one  birth 
to  the  next.  Galton  in  his  Hereditary  Genius,  speaking  of  the 
descendants  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  remarks  that  the  Cromwell  blood 
seemed  to  have  been  less  potent  than  was  to  have  been  expected. 
Cromwell  had  two  sons,  one  born  when  he  was  twenty-seven  and 
the  other  when  he  was  twenty-eight.  It  requires  a  very  good 
quality  of  mother  to  keep  up  great  mental  ability  in  sons  born  to 

such  a  young  father. 

CUVIER. 

The  greatest  French  scientist  was  Cuvier,  who  was  born  in 
1769.  Not  only  was  he  the  greatest  Frenchman  from  the  mental 
standpoint,  but  he  had  the  standard  heavy-weight  brain  of  the 
world.  His  father  was  the  youngest  of  two  sons  and  did  not 
marry  until  he  was  fifty  years  of  age,  and  Cuvier  was  the  second 
child. 

LAMARCK. 

Although  Cuvier  is  credited  with  being  the  greatest  of  French- 
men, there  are  many  men  who  consider  Lamarck  to  have  been  a 
clearer-headed  thinker  than  Cuvier.  He  may  be  considered  as 
the  real  founder  of  evolution,  and  he  is  the  author  of  the  laws  to 
which  this  work  relates.  He  was  born  in  1744.  His  father  was 
born  in  1702,  and  was  consequently  forty-two  when  Lamarck  was 
born.  The  dates  of  births  of  previous  generations  are  not  given, 
but  I  find  that  the  grandfather  of  Lamarck's  father  was  "a  captain 
by  rank  and  bought  the  estate  of  Saint-Martin"  no  years  before 
his  grandson  was  born.  As  this  officer  could  not  very  well  pur- 
chase an  estate  before  he  was  born,  we  have  the  physical  possibilities 


I4O  GREAT  MEN  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

reduced  to  the  two  preceding  generations  being  not  less  than  an 
average  of  fifty-five  years  each. 

HUMBOLDT. 

Humboldt  was  born  in  the  same  year  as  Cuvier,  and  what 
Cuvier  was  to  France  that  Humboldt  was  to  Germany.  In  some 
respects  he  was  even  greater,  because  no  man  ever  had  such  a 
profound  and  trained  intellect.  During  his  life  he  was  recognized 
as  an  authority  on  practically  every  known  science.  His  father 
was  born  in  1620,  and  consequently  was  forty-nine  years  old  when 
Humboldt  was  born. 

NAPOLEON. 

Napoleon  Bonaparte  was  also  born  in  the  same  year  as  Cuvier, 
and  when  his  father  was  only  twenty-three.  He  therefore  is  a 
remarkable  exception,  and  is  the  most  prominent  man  whom  I 
have  been  able  to  find  born  of  so  young  a  father.  That  he  was 
a  man  of  great  ability  cannot  be  questioned.  His  ability,  how- 
ever, seems  to  have  been  only  of  a  military  order.  He  made  sev- 
eral literary  efforts,  but  they  were  the  most  dismal  sort  of  failures. 
Although  a  great  commander,  he  did  not  seem  to  be  a  great  states- 
man. Military  success  caused  his  ambition  to  become  greater 
than  his  judgment,  led  him  into  many  blunders,  and  finally  resulted 
in  his  downfall.  If  he  had  had  anything  like  the  ability  of 
Augustus,  or  even  Peter  the  Great,  he  would  have  maintained  him- 
self to  the  end  as  Emperor  of  France.  Unfortunately  I  can  find 
nothing  in  the  ancestry  of  either  his  father  or  his  mother,  but  we 
know  that  both  were  persons  of  great  ability.  The  father  was 
well  educated,  and  was  a  general  in  the  army  in  active  campaigning 
for  a  year  or  two  before  the  birth  of  Napoleon.  The  mother  ac- 
companied her  husband  in  his  campaigns,  and  Napoleon  came 


GREAT  MEN  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


141 


very  near  being  born  in  camp.  As  it  was  the  future  emperor  is 
said  to  have  been  born  on  a  rug  in  chapel  on  Sunday.  From 
these  circumstances  we  know  an  important  point  in  Napoleon's 
ancestry.  A  man  acting  as  a  commander  in  active  service  neces- 
sarily has  his  mental  faculties  keyed  up  to  the  highest  pitch.  With 
his  wife  accompanying  him  in  battle,  as  she  is  said  to  have  done, 
she  must  also  have  been  exercising  her  brain  to  its  fullest  capacity. 
We  thus  have  both  father  and  mother  using  their  brains  and 
sharpening  their  wits  so  as  to  develop  the  mental  power  to  the 
utmost  pitch  to  which  they  were  able  to  attain  at  their  ages  in  life. 
If  there  were  in  this  no  question  of  ages  of  parents  at  the  birth  of 
the  child,  then  Napoleon  would  be  the  finest  example  of  use-inher- 
itance of  which  we  have  any  record.  As  the  matter  stands,  we 
have  an  illustration  of  the  fact  that  great  mental  activity  may 
produce  a  great  brain  from  comparatively  young  parents,  but  that 
the  utmost  strain  of  mental  activity  for  a  short  period  is  not  a 
full  equivalent  for  a  less  activity  extending  over  a  long  period. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  WORLD. 

In  the  tables  included  in  this  chapter  there  is  given  a  list  of 
about  six  hundred  of  the  great  men  of  the  world's  history.  If 
we  add  to  these  names  those  given  in  the  family  histories  of 
Chapter  XI,  and  a  few  which  will  be  found  in  the  appendix, 
but  which  have  been  omitted  from  the  tables,  the  number  will  be 
raised  to  about  one  thousand.  If  the  ancestors  be  included,  the 
number  of  persons  will  be  increased  to  over  two  thousand.  An 
inspection  of  the  names  given  in  the  tables  will  show  the  range 
which  my  inquiry  has  taken.  In  making  up  my  list  of  names 
from  which  these  tables  have  been  produced,  my  object  has  been 
to  sweep  within  the  list  enough  of  the  great  intellects  of  the  world 
to  make  sure  that  there  may  be  selected  from  it  a  hundred  or 
more  persons  who  are  so  pre-eminently  great  that  it  will  be  impos- 
sible to  find  outside  of  the  list  another  hundred  or  so  of  men  of 
equal  greatness. 

EXPLANATION    OF    TABLES. 

In  making  up  these  tables  I  have  not  adhered  strictly  to  the 
lines  of  division  as  previously  established,  but  have  divided  them 
at  the  nearest  equal  division  of  years  and  have  placed  at  the  head 
of  each  table  the  percentage  of  total  births  that  normally  come  within 
the  division.  I  have  also,  in  calculating  these  tables,  ignored  the 
months,  and  have  simply  taken  the  years  of  births  of  fathers  and 
sons.  This  allows  for  a  possible  discrepancy  of  a  little  less  than 
two  years,  so  that  a  person  given  as  having  a  birth-rank  of  thirty- 
five  may  in  reality  have  a  birth  rank  of  thirty-four  or  thirty-six. 

142 


GREAT    MEN    OF    THE    WORLD,  143; 

A  discrepancy  of  this  amount,  however,  does  not  affect  the  general 
result,  as  one  or  two  years  more  or  less  would  not  materially  affect 
the  offspring,  unless  it  occurred  at  about  the  time  of  coming  to  ma- 
turity or  was  accompanied  by  great  variations  of  activity.  I  have  also 
given  the  birth-ranks  in  figures  in  all  cases  where  the  figures 
have  been  obtainable.  The  first  figures  given  after  a  name  rep- 
resent the  birth-rank  of  the  individual;  succeeding  figures,  when 
given,  represent  the  birth-ranks  of  father  and  grandfather.  The 
birth-ranks  of  mothers  are  not  given  in  the  tables,  but  in  a  number 
of  cases  they  may  be  found  in  the  appendix.  In  cases  in  which 
the  birthrrank  is  approximately  but  not  accurately  known,  I  have 
used  letters  and  have  aimed  to  err  on  the  side  of  reducing  rather 
than  increasing  the  age  of  the  father.  It  is  therefore  probable 
that  some  of  those  given  in  the  second  section  of  class  A  men 
really  belong  in  the  first  section,  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  a 
few  in  the  first  section  may  belong  in  the  second  section.  It  is  be- 
lieved, however,  that  any  errors  arising  through  using  letters  would 
be  rectified  by  a  greater  movement  upward  than  downward. 

An  inspection  of  the  first  section  (Table  VIII)  of  the  class 
A  men  shows  that  it  includes  many  of  the  greatest  men  in  all  the 
world's  history — men  who  are  comparable  only  to  other  men  in 
the  same  section.  The  second  section  (Table  IX)  is  also  com- 
posed of  men  of  very  great  mental  ability,  but  while  there  are 
men  in  it  who  are  greater  than  some  of  those  in  the  first  section, 
the  group,  as  a  whole,  does  not  average  so  high  as  the  first  section. 
Similarly,  when  we  inspect  the  class  B  men  (Table  X),  we  find 
in  it  a  few  men  who  might  properly  change  places  with  some  of 
those  in  both  sections  of  class  A,  yet  the  average  is  a  distinct  drop 
in  mental  greatness. 


144 


GREAT    MEN    OF    THE    WORLD. 


TABLE   VIII. 


BIRTH-RANKS   OF    51    AND   OVER. 

Represents  5  per  cent  of  total  births. 


Abbas 67.  .A 

Alcibiades A2 

Alfred  the  Great..  A2 

Aristotle A3 

Arnauld  .  .......  52 

Audubon 57 . .  A3 

Augustus A3.  .A3. .A3 

Bacon 52 

Bernouilli 69? 

Boyle 60 

Buddha  ..A3 

Bunsen,  C  K.  J...A2 

Bunsen,  R.  W A3 

Calhoun 55 

Carpzov,  J.  B....A2 

Cassini,  J 52 

Coleridge 53 

Confucius  .   ..'... A3 

Cuvier,  G A2 

Cuvier,  F A3 

David A2 

Dibdin A3 

Dbddridge A3 

Fletcher A2 

Franklin,  B 51.  .57.  .A8 

Gracchus,  C.  S 51 


Hall,  R A2 

Handel 63.  .41 

Howard    (Effing- 
ham) 60..  33 

Hunter,  John  ...  .65 

Hunter,  Wm 55 

Irving,  W 52--55 

Johnson,  Sam   ...  53 

Joseph  ..A3.. A3. .A3 

Loa-tse (7o+x) 

Lee,  R.  E 5 1 . .  27 . .  38 

Leibnitz    A2 

Leslie 80 

Manutius    62 

Merian,  Miss 54 

Moses A3.. A3.. A3 

Naumann,  Moritz.57 
Naumann,  Karl ...  56 

Philip A2 

Pisano,  A 70 

Pitt 51 

Ptolemy  II 58 

Seneca    A2 

Solomon  52 . .  A3 

Tasso 51 


DUMAS   [41] 


SIR  WALTER  SCOTT   [42] 


WASHINGTON  IRVING   [52] 


COLERIDGE    [53] 


PETER   THE   GREAT    [43] 


CROMWELL   [43] 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS  [44] 


CHATEAUBRIAND  [A] 


GREAT    MEN    OF    THE    WORLD. 


145 


TABLE    IX. 

BIRTH-RANKS,    45    TO    50. 

Represents  4.17  per  cent  of  total  births. 


Arkwright A 

Assing A 

Bancroft 45 

Barrington,  D.  .  .  .49 

Bulwer 47 

Bulwer-Lytton  ...  49 

Burritt A 

Carnot,  L.  H 48 . .  34 

Carpzov,  A.  B 47 

Cato A.  ..A 

Celsius,  O A 

Chateaubriand   ....  A 

Coligny .  .49 

Combe,  G A 

Cooper,  J.  F A 

Dante A? 

Darwin,  E A 

Davis, A 

Ellsworth 46 

Eyck,  Van A 

Farragut 46 

Fish 50 

Gainsborough   ....  A 

Gladstone 45 . .  32 

Holmes 46 


Humboldt,  A.    ...  49 
Humboldt,  W.  . .  .47 

Jussieu 49 

Law,  Sr 47 

Lee,  Arthur 50.  .44 

Livingston,  E 45 .  .31 .  .34 

Lowth 49 

.  .48         Loyola .A 

..50          MacMahon  .  .....A 

. .  .A          Marie  Antoinette. .  47 . .  32 
Milne- Edwards  ...  A 

Milton 45 

Nasmyth 50 

Owen,  R 50.  .A 

Palmerston 45 

Parker 49.  .32 

Pope 47-45 

Putnam A 

Romilly 45 

Sidney,  H.  ..... .46.  .32.  .36 

Silliman A 

West A 

Wharton .  .50.  .35 

Wilberforce,  S.  . .  .46 
Wolcott 47 

TABLE    X. 


Adams,  J. 
Bismarck 


BIRTH-RANKS,    4!    TO     44. 

Represents  8.75  per  cent  of  total  births. 

43-  -38  Buckland 42 

44  Buckle  . .  42 


146 


GREAT    MEN    OF    THE    WORLD. 


Canning,  C.  J 42 

Carpzov,  J.  B 42 . .  50 

Carpzov,  F.  B. . .  .  42 . .  42 . .  50 

Celsius,  A 43 

Chenier,  M.  J. . . . .  41 

Cibber 41 

Compton 42 

Cromwell 43  ? 

Etena,  F 43.. 37.. 43 

Dana,  R.  H 44.. 43.. 35 

Darwin,  C 43.  .35.  .A 

Dumas,  pere 41 .  .52 

Edison 43 

Elizabeth 42 . .  37 

Forbes 41 

Fox 44.  .78 

Gracchus,  T.  S. . . .  42 
Gustavus  Adolphus44 . .  54 
Herschel,  Sir  J. .  .44.  .31 .  .A 
Herschel,  Miss  ...  43 ..  A 

Ismail  Pasha 41 

Jay,  W 44 

Jenkinson 43 


41 

l! 

42 
44 


LeConte,  Jos. 
LeConte,  J.  L. . 
Lamarck  ...  42 

Lee,  R.  H 

Lee,  Lightfoot 

Machiavelli 41 

Mather 43 

Niebuhr 43 

Morton 41 

Paine,  R.  T 42 

Peter  the  Great. .  .43 

Pugin 43 

Reynolds  .   42 

Schopenhauer .  ...  42 
Scott,  Walter  ....  42 
Vernet,  A.  C.  H..44 
Villiers,  C  P.... 43 
Villiers,  G.  W.  F..4I 

Walpole,  H 41 

Webster,  D 43 

Wedgwood 43 

Wesley 41 

Wilberforce,  R.  I.. 43 


TABLE    XL 

BIRTH-RANKS,    38    TO     40. 

Represents  10  per  cent  of  total  births. 


44 
44 


Adams,  C.  F 40 

Bach 40 . 

Baltard,  V 40 

Barrington,  W.  W.39 

Barrot 38 

Beecher 38 

Bronte 39 


25 
5° 
50 

•25- 

27 


47 


32.  .43          Burns 38 

32  Burr 40 

Carlyle 38 

Carpzov,  S.  B . .  . .  40 . .  42 . .  50 

Cavaignac 40 

Chaloner 40 

Chatterton 39 


GREAT    MEN    OF   THE   WORLD. 


147 


Chenier,  A.  M 39 

Disraeli 39 

Erskine 40 . .  38 

Field 38 

Goethe 39-53 

Goldsmith 38 

Jeffeys 40 

Klaproth 40 

Kotzebue,  P 40 

Law,  Jr 40.. 47 

Lee,  Henry 38.  .45 


Mann 

Martel  . 

Peel 

Pisano,  G. . . . 
Rembrant .  . . 
Stevens,  R.  L. 
Story,  W.  W. 
Visconti,  Jr. 
Washington  . 
Watt. 


.40.  .40.  .34 
.40 

38 

40 
40 

39 
40.. 36 

,40 

38.. 33 
38-56 


TABLE    XII. 


BIRTH-RANKS,    35    TO   37. 

Represents  10.83  Per  cent  °f  total  births. 


Brunei 37 

Carnot,  Sadi   ....  36 

Cassini,  C.  F 37 

D'Alembert 37 

Evarts 37 

Field,  S.  J 35 

Huber 36 , 

Jefferson 35 

Kemble,  Fanny  ...  36 . 

King 37 

LeConte,  John  ...  36 

Lessing,  G.  E 36. 

Livingston,  Wm . .  37 . 

Lopez 37 

Louis  XIV 37 

Lowell . 37. 

Malthus 36 


Melanchthon  35 

.48.. 34         Morton 35. 

.  52  Mozart 37 

Nelson 36 . 

Newton 36 

Owen,  D.  D 36 

.37  Richelieu 37 

Schiller 36. 

.  54  Sheridan,  T 37 

Sherman,  J 35 

Silliman,  J 35 . 

.47  Stewart 36 

.32  Story,  J 36 

Sumner 35 

Swedenborg 35 

,  39  Trevithick 36 

Trollope 35? 


26 


43 


148  GREAT    MEN    OF  THE   WORLD. 

TABLE  XIII. 

BIRTH-RANKS,  33  AND  34. 

Represents  9.58  per  cent  of  total, births. 

Berryer 33  Kent 34.  .25 

Boswell 34  Landseer 34 

Carnot,  L,  N.  M.  .34.  .48  Mendelssohn,  F.  .  .33.  .47 

Carpenter 33  Mill 33 

Cassini,  H.  G 33.  .34.  .37  Mirabeau 34 

Cassini,  J.  D 34.. 37.. 52  Peabody 33.. 36.  .46 

Clinton,  DeW.  . .  .33.  .46  Porter,  Admiral  .  .33 

Dana,  J.  D 33.  .36.  .47  Prescott 34.  .36 

Edwards 22 . .  A  Priestley 33  —  39 

Emerson 34 . .  26 . .  A  Regnault,  Jr 33 

Isadore  St.  Hilaire.33  Ruskin 34 . .  25 

Huygens 33  Stael,  Mme.  de . .  .  34 

Joule 34  Wellington 34.  .45 

TABLE    XIV. 

BIRTH-RANKS,  31    AND   32. 

Represents  10  per  cent  of  the  total  births. 

Adams,  J.  Q 32.  .43.  .38  Lubbock 31 

Agassiz 31  Macauley 32 . .  A 

Beethoven 31 . .  27 . .  54  Moltke 32 . .  38 

Broussais 31  Moore,  Sir  J 32 

Buonarroti 31  Pepys 32 

Burnouf 32  Poe 31 .  .36 

Byron 32.  .33.  .54  Raphael 32 

Chevreul 32  Saussure 31 

Galileo 31  Sherman,  Gen.  . .  .32 

Herschel,  W 31 .  .A  Smith,  Sidney  . .  .32 

Lesseps  .  .... 31  Tromp,  Van  32 

Lincoln.. 31.  .45  Vernet,  J.  E.  H...  .31.. 44.. 25 

Longfellow 3 1 . .  27 


GREAT    MEN    OF   THE   WORLD. 


149 


TABLE    XV. 

BIRTH-RANKS,   29   AND   30. 

Represents  11.25  per  cent  of  total  births. 


Brahe 29 

Channing 29 . .  36 

Carpzov,  B 30 . .  50 

Dollinger 29 

Faraday 30 . .  40  ? 

Hamilton,  W.    ...  30 

Hawthorne 29 . .  44 . .  40 

Helvetius 30.  .55 


Lyell  

•~y 

Marlborough  .  . 
Morse  
Muller,  Max  .  . 
Naumann,  E.  .  . 
Owen,  R.  D.  .  .  . 
Sheridan,  R.  B.  . 

..30 

..29 
..30. 
..30 
..30. 

•35 
•57 
•37 

TABLE    XVI. 

BIRTH-RANKS,    27    AND    28. 

Represents  10.83  Per  cent  °f  t°tal  births. 


Bryant 

Cams,  V.  J. . . 
Charlemagne  . 
Charles  XII... 
Cockburn  . 


27..  36.. 29  Decatur 28 

28.  .25  Grant 28.  .46 

27 . .  25 . .  40  Kotzebue,  M 28 

27 .  .  33  Livingstone,  R.  R.27 . .  3 1 . .  34 

28.. 45  Swift 27.. 45.. A 


TABLE    XVII. 

BIRTH-RANKS,    25    AND    26. 

Represents  8.33  per  cent  of  total  births. 


Alexander 26 . .  A2 

Bunyan 25 

Dickens 26 

Forster 25 

Gray,  Asa 25  . . 40. . 48 

Kotzebue,  Otto ...  26 

Locke 26.  .32 

Marshall 25 


Mohammed 25 . 

Saxe 26 

Sidney,  Sir  P 25.  .47 

Walpde,  R 26 

Wellesley 25 

Whitney 25 

Willis  .  .26 


46.. A 


45 
44 


40 


150 


GREAT    MEN    OF    THE    WORLD. 


TABLE    XVIII. 

BIRTH-RANKS    UNDER   25. 

Represents  11.25  Per  cent  °f  tota^  births. 


Bonaparte 23 

Bruce 21 .  .43 

Buff  on 24 

Constantine 22  ? 

Dumas,  fils 21 .  .41 

Frederick 24.  .31 

Hannibal 23 

Hastings 24 


52 
37 


Lafayette .24 

Mather,  C 24 

Napier 16 

Perry 24 

Racine 24 

Stevenson,  R 22 

Vane 24 


43 

21 


TABLE    XIX. 


Bache 64-7-2 . .  38 

Beecher,  L 69-1-2 

Canning,  G 67-7-2 

Canning,  S 83-7-2 

Colfax 63-7-2 

Copernicus (77+x)-^-2 

Dudevant  . . .  103-7-3  for  female 

Fielding (i25+x)-4-3 

Gibbon 71-1-2 

Harrison  .  .  60-7-2 


TABLE 


Hume,  David   .  . .  (7i+x)-r-2 
Lessing,  K.   F...    115-7-3.. 47 
Montalembert  . . .   96-7-2 
Montmorency  . .  .103-7-2 

Savonarola 68-7-2 

Shaftsbury (7o+x)-r-2 

Smollett 73~=-2 

Sulla  .  .  ..105-7-2,  see  appendix 

Tennyson 59~^~2 

Wollaston 107-7-2 

XX. 


Ampere  — lived  61  years,  orphan  at  18. 

Anderloni    had  brother  18  years  older. 

Astor had  brother  1 1  years  older. 

Augustine lived  75  years,  orphan  at  an  early  age. 

Baird lived  "64  years,  orphan  at  10. 

Basil lived  50  years,  orphan  as  a  youth. 

Becket see  appendix. 

Bell father's  second  son  was  1 1  years  older. 

Eentley by  second  wife. 


GREAT    MEN    OF    THE    WORLD.  15! 

Benton lived  76  years,  orphan  at  8. 

Blackstone posthumous,  had  brother  much  older. 

Blainville   lived  73  years,  orphan  at  an  early  age. 

Bockh    had  brother  8  years  older. 

Boethius    lived  50  years,  orphan  as  a  child. 

Buckingham   by  second  wife,  orphan  at  13. 

Burke see  appendix. 

Calderon   lived  81  years,  orphan  at  8. 

Cartwright was  third  son. 

Castelar was  an  orphan  at  7. 

Cavour was  a  "younger  son". 

Cervantes was  youngest  of  four  sons. 

Chalmers was  6th  of  14  children. 

Champollion   had  a  brother  13  years  older. 

Chase lived  65  years,  orphan  at  7. 

Chrysostom   lived  60  years,   orphan  in  infancy. 

Gay lived  75  years,  orphan  at  4. 

Cobden lived  61  years,  orphan  at  an  early  age. 

Condorcet lived  5 1  years,  orphan  at  4. 

Copernicus lived  70  years,  orphan  at  10. 

Cranmer    lived  67  years,  orphan  at  14. 

Cromwell see  appendix. 

Dalton born  1 1  years  after  father's  marriage. 

Daubenton  lived  84  years,  orphan  at  20. 

Davy,  J lived  78  years,  orphan  at  4. 

Demosthenes   lived  63  years,  orphan  at  7. 

Descartes   youngest  son  of  a  younger  branch. 

Douglass lived  48  years,  orphan  at  2  months. 

Emmet had  a  brother  16  years  older. 

Erasmus    lived  69  years,  orphan  at  an  early  age. 

Eugene    fifth  and  youngest  son. 

Everett father  was  pastor  12  years  before  son's  birth. 

Fenelon by    second    marriage    "contracted  in    mature 

years". 


152  GREAT    MEN    OF    THE    WORLD. 

Ferguson    youngest  son  of  a  numerous  family. 

Forbes,  David had  a  brother  13  years  older. 

Forbes,  J.  D fourth  and  youngest  son. 

Fremont lived  77  years,  orphan  at  5. 

Froebel see  appendix. 

Fronde  his  father's  fourth  son  was  8  years  older. 

Fulton lived  50  years,  orphan  at  3. 

Gallatin lived  88  years,  orphan  in  infancy. 

Garrick father  was  29+X ;   X=  about  10. 

Garrison    mother  was  28. 

Gifford lived  69  years,  orphan  in  childhood. 

Gordon was  fourth  son. 

Hale lived  67  years,  orphan  at  an  early  age. 

Hamilton,  A see    appendix. 

Hamilton,  W.  R...  fourth  child. 

Hampden lived  49  years,  orphan  in  childhood. 

Harvey    second  child  by  second  wife. 

Henry see  appendix. 

Holbein father  was  between  37  and  47. 

Hood,  T lived  47  years,  orphan  at  12. 

Howard,  J lived  64  years,  orphan  at  17. 

Hughes   youngest  of  3  sons. 

Hume,  Jos lived  78  years,  orphan  at  9. 

Hunt,  Leigh see  appendix. 

Huss    burned  at  46,  orphan  at  an  early  age. 

Iturbide executed  at  41,  orphan  at  15. 

Jackson,  A posthumous,  lived  78  years. 

Jacquard lived  82  years,  orphan  at  20. 

Jenner lived  74  years,  orphan  at  5,  was  youngest. 

Joan  of  Arc fifth  child. 

Jones,  Owen see  appendix. 

Jones,  Sir  W lived  48  years,  orphan  at  3. 

Jonson posthumous,  lived  63  years. 

Juarez   lived  66  years,  orphan  at  an  early  age. 


GREAT    MEN    OF    THE    WORLD.  153 

Lamb had  a  brother  12  years  older. 

Lamennais was  fourth  of  six  children. 

Lea see  appendix. 

Liszt lived  75  years,  orphan  at  16 

Luthur   see  appendix. 

Marcellus  see  appendix. 

Marion youngest  of  seven  children. 

Martineau,  H was  the  sixth  of  eight  children. 

Martineau,  J youngest  brother  of  Harriet. 

Mehemet  AH. . lived  80  years,  orphan  at  an  early  age. 

Mendoza see  appendix. 

Miller by  second  wife. 

Murillo    lived  65  years,  full  orphan  at  10. 

Murray   was  fourth  son. 

Neander was  the  youngest  child. 

Neipce see  appendix. 

Paoli    had  a  brother  9  years  older. 

Patti youngest  by  second  marriage. 

Pestalozzi    lived  81  years,  orphan  at  6. 

Petrarch see  appendix. 

Powers    was  8th  of  9  children. 

Proctor   was  fourth  and  youngest  son. 

Renan    had  a  brother  14  years  older. 

Romanes was  third  son. 

Rubens see  appendix. 

Rumford lived  61  years,  orphan  at  i. 

Scipio' see  appendix. 

Shakespeare see  page  134. 

Sheridan,  Gen was  the  third  child. 

Smith,  Adam see  appendix. 

Spinoza see  appendix. 

Stephens,  A.  H ....  see  appendix. 

Thomson had  a  brother  8  years  older. 

Vandyke   was  seventh  of  12  children. 


154 


GREAT    MEN    OF    THE    WORLD. 


Vernet see  appendix. 

Voltaire his  only  brother  was  10  years  older. 

Wagner,  R lived  70  years,  orphan  in  infancy. 

Wallenstein   lived  51  years,  orphan  at  an  early  age. 

Whitefield lived  56  years,  orphan  as  a  child. 

Wordsworth,  C . . . .  see  appendix. 

TABLE    XXL 

BIRTH-RANKS    LOOKED    FOR    BUT    NOT    FOUND. 


Anderson 

Arago 

Baird 

Balzac 

Bentham 

Bernadotte 

Berzelius 

Boccaccio 

Bonnet 

Bruno 

Caesar 

Calvin 

Candole 

Canova 

Chaucer 

Cicero 

Columbus 

Comte 

Cope 

Davy,  H 

Defoe 

Diocletian 

Dujardin 

Ericsson 

Fichte 

*Since  found. 


Fitch 
Fourier 
Fresnel 
Gambetta 
Garibaldi 
Gauss 

Gay-Lussac 
GeofTery  St.  Hilaire 
Grotius 
Gutenberg 
Hahnemann 
Haydn 
Helmholtz 
Homer 
Huxley* 
Hypatia 
Kant 
Keats 
Kepler 
Kingsley 
Knox 
Laplace 
Lavater 
Leverier 
Linnaeus 
See  appendix. 


Mendoza 

Metternich 

Moliere 

Montaigne 

Nageli 

Ohm 

Oken 

Paine,  T. 

Pascal 

Rankine 

Rousseau 

Schlegel 

Seward 

Spencer 

Stradivarius 

Talleyrand 

Thackeray 

Titian 

Tyndall 

Verdi 

Vinci 

Virchow 

Volta 

Wren 

Wycliffe 


GREAT    MEN    OF    THE    WORLD. 


155 


COMPARISON    OF   TABLES. 

As  we  read  down  the  list  from  table  to  table  of  those  whose 
birth-ranks  are  given,  it  is  often  difficult  to  distinguish  the  relative 
rank  of  one  of  them  as  compared  to  the  next  adjacent  one  above 
or  below,  but  when  we  compare  any  two  groups  in  which  the 
birth-ranks  are  separated  by  ten  years,  the  difficulty  disappears, 
and  we  can  readily  see  that  the  figures  are  a  relatively  accurate 
representation  of  the  difference  between  them.  When  we  come 
to  the  last  three,  groups  of  those  provided  with  birth-ranks,  and 
particularly  to  the  group  having  birth-ranks  under  twenty-five, 
we  find  many  men  who  have  achieved  world-wide  fame,  but  men 
who  cannot  be  strictly  said  to  have  acquired  that  fame  because 
of  great  mental  endowments.  As  previously  pointed  out,  fame  is 
not  necessarily  commensurate  with  intellectual  greatness. 

LOMBROSO  ON    MILITARY   COMMANDERS. 

In  an  article  on  "Megalomania,"1  Professor  Lombroso  says: 
"Now  that  historians  have  dropped  their  reverence  for  mere  con- 
querors, the  megalomania  of  these  kings  becomes  perceptible. 
They  were  one  and  all  afflicted  with  insane  big-headedness ;  insane 
big-headedness  directed  their  every  action;  this  nervous  malady 
overruled  their  intellect  and  finally  superseded  it.  You  will  say, 
surely  Alexander  was  possessed  with  a  powerful  mind.  So  he  was ; 
but  remember  that  as  a  child  he  dreaded  the  possibility  of  his 
father's  conquest  of  the  world,  that  as  a  man  he  carried  war  into 
India,  which  could  have  been  of  no  use  to  him,  and  that  his 

empire  went  to  pieces  even  before  his  death Charles  XII 

of  Sweden  acted  even  worse  than  Louis  XIV.     .     .     .     This  fool 
invaded  the  interior  of  Russia,  and  after  he  succeeded  in  annihi- 
(i)     Chicago  Tribune,  April  21,   1901. 


156  GREAT    MEN    OF    THE    WORLD. 

lating  80,000  Russians  with  his  8,000  Swedes,  his  insane  big- 
headedness  would  not  allow  him  to  utilize  the  advantage  this 
victory  gave  him.  When  a  semi-prisoner  in  Turkey  he  had  the 
effrontery  to  tell  his  Parliament  he  would  send  one  of  his  boats 
to  Sweden  to  preside  at  the  sittings  of  the  nation's  elect;  with 
three  hundred,  afterwards  with  fifteen,  soldiers  he  undertook  to 
declare  war  against  Turkey,  and  when  finally  he  returned  to  Sweden 
he  tried  to  force  his  notions  upon  Russia. 

"From  a  warrior  and  statesman,  Napoleon  became  the  greatest 
megalomaniac  the  world  ever  produced.  When  master  of  Europe 
he  essayed  to  conquer  India  and  Asia,  and  of  necessity  failed  in 
an  undertaking  which  was  far  too  tremendous  for  the  capabilities 
of  one  nation  and  one  individual.  Napoleon  used  to  say,  'Europe 
is  but  a  small  mole-hill.  Great  empires  can  only  be  founded  in 
the  Orient,  where  600,000,000  of  people  live.  There  one  may  exe- 
cute great  reforms/  When  he  formulated  these  ideas  Napoleon 
was  clearly  a  megalomaniac;  his  genius  had  degenerated  into 
insane  big-headedness.  Taine  was  right  when  he  said  of  him  that 
he  regarded  the  world  as  a  great  picnic,  where  the  man  having 
the  longest  arms  fared  best.  He  used  the  dignitaries  of  the  crown 
and  his  generals  as  flunkies,  and  as  his  big-headedness  increased 
treated  other  monarchs  and  their  ministers  in  the  same  fashion. 
The  unthinking  may  judge  him,  for  that  reason,  a  great  man, 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  glory  of  this  megalomaniac 
was  bought  by  the  lives  of  millions,  at  the  cost  of  two  invasions 
of  foreign  armies,  while  resulting  in  France's  utter  downfall. 
These  were  the  consequences  of  Napoleon's  political  activity  and 
the  fruits  of  egotism  which  had  'genius'  for  handmaid." 

This  is  what  Prof.  Lombroso  has  to  say  of  one  man  out  of  each 
of  our  last  three  groups,  and  the  same  remarks  apply  by  implication 


GREAT    MEN    OF    THE    WORLD.  157 

to  several  other  men  in  the  same  groups.  But  it  will  be  noticed  that 
Prof.  Lombroso  does  not  make  any  such  remarks  about  any  indi- 
vidual in  the  three  groups  included  in  classes  A  and  B,  which  are 
five  times  as  numerous  as  those  in  the  last  three  groups.  As  I  am 
not  personally  responsible  for  the  times  at  which  the  fathers  of  these 
men  conceived  their  sons,  it  cannot  be  charged  that  I  selected  and 
arranged  them  with  the  view  of  applying  Prof.  Lombroso's  criti- 
cism to  them. 

COMPARISON    BY    NUMBERS. 

Taking  those  whose  birth-ranks  I  have  recorded,  we  have  354 
eminent  men.  Although  only  9.17  per  cent  of  all  births  are  to 
fathers  over  45  years  of  age  while  11.25  Per  cent  are  to  fathers 
under  25,  we  have  128  persons  who  were  sons  of  old  fathers  as 
against  fifteen  who  were  sons  of  young  fathers.  By  calculation  I 
have  shifted  the  lines  of  division  between  the  groups  of  men  so  as 
to  cause  these  lines  to  fall  at  the  ages  of  our  standard  scale,  and  the 
result  of  this  calculation  is  shown  in  Fig.  9. 

This  diagram  shows  a  gradual  increase  in  the  number  of  emi- 
nent men  as  the  fathers  grow  older,  and  a  very  pronounced  increase 
at  the  extreme  age.  Even  if  we  did  not  have  these  men  standing 
up  in  a  row  before  us  so  that  we  could  compare  the  quality  of  one 
group  with  the  quality  of  another,  the  mere  matter  of  numbers 
would  be  very  emphatic.  The  diagram  also  shows  the  peculiar 
prominence  of  class  b  which  we  previously  noticed  in  Fig.  6.  An 
inspection  of  the  last  three  groups  shows  that  they  contain  a  good 
many  men  who  were  heirs  to  titles  and  authority,  and  it  is  almost 
certain  that  their  eminence  is  due  to  inherited  position  rather  than 
to  inherited  intellect.  In  the  last  two  of  these  groups  this  class  of 
men  is  more  numerous  than  in  the  third  group,  and  if  the  men  of 


'58 


GREAT    MEN    OF   THE    WORLD. 


doubtful  right  in  a  list  of  great  intellects  should  be  eliminated,  the 
diagram  would  run  down  regularly  to  the  end,  leaving  a  less  number 
of  persons  in  classes  a  and  b  than  in  class  c.  It  is  furthermore  evi- 
dent that  a  number  of  men,  like  the  younger  Dumas  and  Robert 
Stephenson,  did  not  achieve  their  eminence  by  their  unaided  efforts, 


/Q       3.Q      39 


SO 


JO       $0       <?0      100      fiO     /JO      /3O 


a, 
£ 

e 

cL 

£, 

£ 
D 

C 


FIG.    9— DISTRIBUTION   OF   354   GREAT  MEN  BY   THEIR  BIRTH-RANKS. 

but  largely  in  consequence  of  the  opportunities  given  them  by  their 
fathers. 

The  elder  Dumas  had  a  birth-rank  of  41.  He  may  be  consid- 
ered as  an  eminent  man,  but  we  find  him  placed  in  juxtaposition 
with  men  still  more  eminent.  If  we  were  to  estimate  father  and 
son  by  the  number  of  square  inches  given  to  their  biographical 
notices  in  the  Cyclopedia,  we  would  find  the  elder  to  be  five  times 
as  eminent  as  his  son. 

REVIEW    OF   INCOMPLETE   TABLES. 

Passing  from  the  groups  of  men  for  whom  the  birth-ranks  have 
been  definitely  determined,  we  have  in  table  XIX  a  small  group  of 


GREAT    MEN    OF   THE   WORLD.  159 

men  about  whom  our  information  is  restricted  to  the  sum  of  the 
birth-ranks  for  two  or  more  generations.  An  inspection  of  this 
table  will  show  that  the  lower  of  our  ten  classes  cannot  be  recruited 
from  them  in  either  number  of  individuals  or  in  men  of  great 
ability. 

In  table  XX  we  have  a  list  of  114  men  in  regard  to  whom 
the  information  is  still  more  limited.  This  information,  as  far  as 
it  goes,  indicates  that  their  fathers  were  old  when  they  were  born. 
The  mere  fact  that  a  man,  who  lived  to  be  old,  was  an  orphan  at 
an  early  age  is  not,  of  itself,  proof  that  he  was  a  son  of  an  old  man, 
but  where  a  good  many  such  cases  are  taken  together,  the  facts  are 
good  circumstantial  evidence  that  the  fathers  were  old  in  a  good 
many  instances.  It  certainly  would  be  a  queer  commentary  on  the 
laws  of  inheritance  and  circumstantial  evidence  if  it  should  not 
prove  that  more  than  one-half  of  these  persons  had  birth-ranks 
above  35.  It  is  quite  evident  that  we  cannot  expect  to  fill  the 
vacancies  in  the  lower  of  our  ten  classes  from  this  group  of  men. 

In  table  XXI  we  have  a  list  of  men  whose  birth-ranks  I  have 
looked  for  but  have  not  found.  This  does  not  mean  that  the  birth- 
ranks  of  all  of  them  cannot  be  found,  but  that  I  have  not  been  able 
to  find  them  with  the  facilities  at  my  command  or  without  an 
amount  of  research  which  I  was  unwilling  to  give.  Besides,  I 
could  see  no  useful  results  to  be  obtained  by  a  large  amount  of 
additional  labor  after  it  became  evident  that  the  process  would  be 
slow  and  attended  with  meagre  results. 

CAN  THE  TABLES  BE  EQUALIZED  IN  NUMBERS  AND  QUALITY? 

The  question  then  is :  If  we  could  obtain  the  birth-ranks  of  all 
of  these  unknown  men,  would  enough  of  them  fall  in  the  lower 
classes  to  even  up  these  classes  in  numbers  and  mental  ability? 


I6O  GREAT    MEN    OF   THE    WORLD. 

There  are  several  reasons  for  saying  that  they  would  not.  In  the 
first  place,  the  law  of  probabilities,  as  applied  to  ordinary  individuals, 
would  divide  these  unknown  men  pretty  evenly  throughout  our  ten 
classes,  leaving  the  results  the  same  as  they  are  now.  In  the  second 
place,  the  same  law,  as  it  has  been  shown  to  apply  to  selected  groups 
of  great  men,  would  divide  these  unknown  men  in  about  the  same 
ratio  in  which  the  known  men  have  been  divided,  thus  further  in- 
creasing the  higher  classes  at  the  expense  of  the  lower.  In  the 
third  place,  we  already  have  in  the  ten  ranked  classes,  and  in  the 
two  groups  immediately  succeeding  them,  nearly  one-half  of  our 
entire  list  definitely  located  above  the  average  birth-rank,  hence  the 
evening  process  would  require  that  almost  the  entire  list  of  un- 
known persons  should  fall  in  the  lower  classes.  This  is  a  combina- 
tion which  no  one  will  for  a  moment  presume  to  be  possible.  And 
in  the  fourth  place,  even  if  the  entire  unknown  list  should  fall  in 
the  lower  classes,  it  does  not  contain  enough  men  of  transcendent 
mental  greatness  to  offset  the  men  in  classes  A  and  B. 

There  remains  the  one  question:  Can  there  be  found,  outside 
of  the  800  or  900  men  here  recorded,  enough  men  born  in  the 
lower  classes  to  expand  these  classes  to  one  hundred  men  each, 
and  at  the  same  time  bring  the  mental  standard  of  these  classes  up 
to  the  average  of  the  one  hundred  recorded  in  class  A?  I  will 
leave  this  question  to  be  answered  by  anyone  who  thinks  that  he 
can  do  this,  in  the  meantime  feeling  confident  that  it  cannot  be 
done. 

PROOF  BY  TEN  GREAT  MEN. 

In  fact  we  might  rest  our  case  on  ten  great  men  taken  from  ten 
different  countries.  If  I  look  among  the  Hebrews  for  the  greatest 
man  ever  produced  among  them  and  find  Moses,  the  law  of  prob- 


GREAT    MEN    OF    THE    WORLD.  l6l 

abilities  says  that  there  is  only  one  chance  in  ten  that  I  find  him 
born  in  class  A  and  only  one  chance  in  fifty  that  I  find  him  born 
in  sub-class  A3.  If  I  look  to  China  for  the  greatest  Chinaman, 
it  is  again  only  one  chance  in  ten  that  I  find  Confucius  born  in 
class  A,  one  chance  in  fifty  that  I  find  him  born  in  sub-class  A3, 
one  chance  in  one  hundred  that  I  find  both  Moses  and  Confucius 
born  in  class  A,  and  only  one  chance  in  twenty-five  hundred  that 
I  find  them  both  with  the  birth-ranks  as  high  as  A3.  If  I  then  go 
to  India  for  the  greatest  man  produced  there,  the  chances  rise  to 
one  in  a  thousand  in  one  case  and  to  one  in  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  thousand  in  the  other.  If  I  continue  this  process,  pick- 
ing out  the  greatest  known  intellects  in  Greece,  in  Rome,  in  Egypt, 
in  England,  in  France,  in  Germany  and  in  America,  the  chances  rise 
to  the  enormous  total  of  one  in  five  hundred  millions  of  millions, 
a  number  which  is  equal  to  three  hundred  thousand  times  the  total 
population  of  the  earth.  And  yet  these  figures  ignore  the  com- 
pounding arising  from  successive  generations  born  in  class  A,  and 
depend  only  upon  the  birth-ranks  of  the  individuals  themselves. 
Surely  this  can  be  no  longer  considered  a  question  of  probabilities. 
We  must  hold  with  Aristotle  that  what  occurs  regularly  cannot  be 
the  result  of  chance,  but  must  be  dependent  upon  some  law,  and 
that  that  law  says  that  the  mental  ability  of  the  offspring  is  depend- 
ent upon  the  age  of  the  parent  at  the  time  of  reproduction. 

TEN    MEN    FROM    TEN    COUNTRIES. 

Aristotle,  A2.  Cuvier,  A2. 

Augustus,  A3,  A3,  A8.  Franklin,  A2  (A3,  A),  A8 

Bacon,  A2.  Humboldt,  A. 

Buddha,  A3.  Moses,  A3  (A3,  A3),  A3. 

Confucius,  A8.  Ptolemy  II,  A3. 


l62  GREAT    MEN    OF   THE   WORLD. 

PROOF  BY  ONE  MAN  ALONE. 

I  have  said  that  we  might  rest  our  case  on  ten  men  alone.  We 
may  go  even  farther  and  rest  it  upon  one  individual  of  this  ten, 
as  on  Augustus  or  Moses,  or  better  yet  on  Franklin,  because  the 
dates  for  Franklin  are  known  and  may  be  verified.  Franklin  takes 
the  birth-rank  of  51,  his  father  takes  the  rank  of  57,  his  mother 
ranks  50,  his  paternal  grandfather  has  a  rank  that  is  probably  over 
65,  and  there  are  two  other  generations  of  known  high  rank  to  be 
accounted  for.  Now,  I  find  that  successive  births  in  high  ranks  are 
much  more  rare  than  successive  births  in  low  ranks.  In  the  gene- 
alogy from  which  our  standard  is  taken,  I  find  only  a  single  case  of 
two  successive  generations  in  the  male  line  in  class  A  and  no  case 
of  three  generations  successively  so  born.  On  the  other  hand  I 
found  numerous  cases  of  two  successive  generations  born  in  class 
a,  and  out  of  a  small  group  taken  at  random  I  found  one  case 
where  class  a  extended  over  three  generations.  This  is  from  the 
same  source  from  which  the  classes  were  established,  and  shows 
that  early  reproduction  is  much  more  fertile  than  late  reproduc- 
tion, especially  in  the  second  and  third  generations.  From  these 
considerations,  from  what  I  have  previously  shown  to  be  the  case 
in  Ireland  and  Scotland,  and  from  what  will  appear  later  as  to 
what  occurs  in  the  different  countries  of  the  world,  I  have  satisfied 
myself  that  for  each  case  in  which  both  father  and  son  take  birth- 
ranks  of  50  or  over,  there  are  literally  hundreds  of  cases  in  which 
the  father  and  son  both  take  birth-ranks  of  25  or  under.  If  we 
extend  this  from  two  generations  to  three  generations  and  include 
one  on  the  mother's  side — all  being  50  or  more — then  the  number 
of  persons  of  corresponding  low  rank  to  one  of  such  high  rank 
increases  tremendously.  If  the  birth  of  a  son  of  great  intellectual 


GREAT    MEN    OF    THE    WORLD.  163 

power  be  simply  the  result  of  chance,  then,  according  to  the  law 
of  probabilities,  it  should  be  possible  to  find  thousands  of  persons 
who  are  the  mental  equal  of  Franklin  and  who  have  birth-ancestries 
equally  far  at  the  other  extreme  of  the  scale.  But  such  thousands 
cannot  be  found,  nor  is  it  possible  to  find,  out  of  the  millions  of 
persons  so  born,  a  solitary  individual  who  approaches,  even  in  a 
remote  degree,  the  intellectual  power  of  Franklin.  Rare  as  are 
birth-ancestries  as  high  as  that  of  Franklin,  they  are  not  rare  in 
our  class  A  men.  His  is  exceeded  by  those  of  Augustus,  and 
Moses,  and,  if  we  could  get  at  the  truth  of  the  matter,  we  would 
probably  find  it  exceeded  in  a  number  of  other  cases. 


CHAPTER  X. 

MENTAL  APTITUDES. 

Let  us  assume  a  son  who  is  strong,  healthy,  active,  and  of 
rather  more  than  average  mental  ability,  and  let  us  trace  his  life 
history.  As  he  approaches  twenty  years  of  age  he  observes,  in  a 
number  of  points,  his  superiority  over  his  associates,  and  because 
he  can  see  and  appreciate  that  which  is  his  own  better  than  he 
can  that  which  is  peculiar  to  some  other  person,  he  often  imagines 
superiority  when  none  actually  exists.  Because  of  his  youth  and 
his  comparative  inexperience,  he  fails  to  realize  the  relatively  vast 
store  of  knowledge  hidden  in  the  brain  of  some  unobtrusive  but 
hiuch  older  man.  Because  of  his  health,  strength  and  activity,  he 
delights  in  physical  exercise,  keeps  track  of  the  ball  games,  and 
knows  all  about  the  prize-fighters  whether  he  knows  who  is  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  or  not.  As  a  consequence,  our  young 
man,  from  twenty  to  twenty-five,  is  very  much  a  bundle  of  con- 
ceit and  aggressiveness. 

CHANGE  IN   CHARACTER  DUE  TO  CHANGE  IN  AGE. 

As  he  approaches  thirty  he  attends  the  theater  and  concerts 
oftener,  and  begins  to  take  more  interest  in  literature,  art,  music, 
poetry,  and  those  things  which  appeal  to  the  sentiments  and  sense 
of  the  beautiful.  As  the  second  stage  advances,  the  stage  of  con- 
ceit and  aggressiveness  gradually  wears  away  until,  at  the  age  of 
thirty-five,  the  objectionable  features  of  it  have  practically  disap- 
peared. At  this  age  he  dresses  well,  cares  much  for  appearances, 
and  is  the  embodiment  of  artistic  taste. 

164 


MENTAL    APTITUDES.  165 

As  he  approaches  forty  he  interests  himself  more  and  more  in 
practical  affairs.  He  has  got  over  working  for  fame  and  is  now 
working  for  the  dollars.  He  looks  less  at  the  beautiful  and  more  at 
the  useful  and  profitable.  He  begins  to  take  more  interest  in  local, 
state,  or  national  politics.  He  uses  his  influence  toward  municipal 
improvements,  better  police  protection,  and  regulation  of  the 
saloons  and  the  unruly  members  of  society.  During  his  forties  he 
has  largely  forgotten  the  conceit,  turbulence  and  aggressiveness  of 
his  own  youth  and  condemns  that  in  his  son. 

When  in  his  fifties,  he  has  passed  the  heat  and  passions  of  youth 
and  looks  more  at  the  moral  and  philosophical  side  of  questions. 
He  takes  an  interest  in  scientific  questions  provided  they  rise  above 
curiosity  and  purely  academical  interest.  Wise  statesmanship,  the 
good  of  the  world,  the  good  of  mankind  and  philanthropy  engross 
his  attention. 

This  life  history  does  not  represent  that  of  any  particular  indi- 
vidual, and  is  probably  not  exactly  true  in  any  case.  In  one  person 
conceit  and  aggressiveness  may  continue  throughout  the  larger  part 
of  his  life,  and  wise  statesmanship  and  philanthropy  may  never 
appear.  In  another  person  the  artistic  sense  may  appear  early  and 
continue  late.  In  still  another,  the  practical  nature  and  acquisitive 
propensities  may  be  the  dominating  influence  throughout  life. 
Still  our  assumed  individual  may  be  considered  as  typical,  and  as 
representing,  more  or  less  closely,  the  general  drift  of  character  of 
all  individuals.  He  stands  for  man  in  the  aggregate,  and  in  one 
generation  is  the  father  of  the  next  generation. 

EFFECT  OF  THESE  CHANGES  ON  OFFSPRING. 

Having  more  or  less  perfectly,  or  imperfectly,  established  our 
typical  father,  and  having  traced  the  changes  of  his  character  dur- 


1 66  MENTAL   APTITUDES. 

ing  the  different  stages  of  his  life,  it  remains  to  be  seen  what  effect 
these  changes  in  character  will  have  on  his  offspring  produced  dur- 
ing these  different  stages.  Under  a  strict  interpretation  of  the  laws 
of  use-inheritance,  we  should  expect  that  the  sons  of  early  manhood 
would  be  active,  aggressive  and  egotistical;  that  the  children  born 
when  he  was  between  thirty  and  forty  would  exhibit  a  tendency 
toward  the  musical,  the  artistic,  the  beautiful ;  that  the  sons  pro- 
duced when  he  is  between  forty  and  fifty  would  be  practical  men  of 
affairs,  business  men,  manufacturers,  lawyers  and  statesmen;  and 
that  the  sons  born  after  he  has  passed  fifty  years  of  age  would  be 
philosophers,  moral  reformers  and  philanthropists. 

In  testing  this  a  priori  reasoning  by  our  tables  of  birth-ranks 
I  find  it  very  largely  correct,  and  that  the  mental  aptitudes  of  the 
child  are  strongly  influenced  by  the  age  of  the  parent  at  the  time 
of  the  child's  birth.  To  illustrate  this  point  I  have  drawn  off  from 
the  tables,  four  groups  of  men  who  may  be  considered  typical  of 
these  respective  characters. 

MORALITY,  PHILOSOPHY,  PHILANTHROPY.  STATESMANSHIP. 

BIRTH-RANKS  OVER  51.  BIRTH-RANKS  4!  TO  5O. 

Aristotle.  Bismarck. 

Arnauld.  Canning. 

Bacon.  Carnot. 

Boyle.  Cato. 

Buddha.  Chateaubriand. 

Confucius.  Cromwell. 

Franklin.  Gladstone. 

Hall.  Gracchus. 

Leibnitz.  Gustavus  Adolphus. 

Moses.  Machiavelli. 

Seneca.  Peter  the  Great. 

-Solomon.  Webster. 


MENTAL    APTITUDES.  l6/ 

MUSIC,   POETRY,  ART  AND  LITERA-  MILITARISM   AND  AGGRESSIVENESS. 

TURE.      BIRTH-RANKS   31   TO  4O.  BIRTH-RANKS  LESS  THAN  31. 

Bach.  Alexander. 

Beethoven.  Bonaparte. 

Mendelssohn.  Charlemagne. 

Goethe.  Charles  XII. 

Schiller.  Decatur. 

Shakespeare.  Frederick. 

Angelo.  Grant. 

Raphael.  Hannibal. 

Rembrandt.  Hastings. 

Carlyle.  Pompey. 

Goldsmith.  Saxe. 

Macaulay.  Scipio. 

The  first  group,  consisting  of  men  having  birth-ranks  of  51 
and  over,  is  distinctly  moral  and  philosophical  in  its  character,  and 
is  typical  of  the  character  of  old  men.  They  are  all  sons  of  old 
men,  some  of  them  sons  of  very  old  men. 

The  second  group  consists  of  men  having  birth-ranks  from  41 
to  50.  They  are  all  statesmen  and  men  of  practical  intelligence 
and  usefulness.  I  might  have  made  up  this  group  of  twelve  from 
men  who  have  become  eminent  in  the  practical  arts  and  sciences, 
but  as  this  class  is  slightly  less  numerous  than  statesmen  at  this 
birth-rank,  and  as  it  is  somewhat  more  difficult  to  classify  them, 
I  have  omitted  them  entirely  from  this  branch  of  my  discussion. 
By  tabulation,  however,  I  find  that  they  run  closely  parallel  with 
statesmen,  but  are  a  little  more  evenly  distributed  throughout  the 
scale.  Another  reason  for  excluding  them  is  that  the  practical 
arts  and  sciences  cover  a  wider  range  than  statesmanship  and  are 
consequently  less  typical  of  character. 

The  third  group,  consisting  of  men  having  birth-ranks  from 


1 68  MENTAL    APTITUDES. 

31  to  40,  is  distinctly  typical  of  what  may  be  generally  classed  as 
fine  arts.  They  are  musicians,  painters,  poets  and  authors.  They 
represent  that  which  is  artistic  and  beautiful,  and  are  most  appre- 
ciated by  men  between  the  ages  of  thirty  and  forty. 

The  fourth  group  consists  of  strictly  military  men  and  is  rep- 
resentative of  the  active,  aggressive,  ambitious  and  conquering 
character.  In  a  previously  given  quotation,  Professor  Lombroso 
has  characterized  three  of  these  men  as  megalomaniacs,  i.  e.}  men 
whose  insane  bigheadedness  has  carried  them  away  from  good 
common  sense  to  a  desire  to  conquer  and  rule  the  world. 

NUMERICAL  COMPARISON. 

To  discover  how  far  these  mental  characters  determine  the 
number  of  men  as  well  as  their  quality,  I  have  tabulated  all  of 
those  for  whom  I  have  been  able  to  obtain  birth-ranks  and  I  find 
236  who  fall  in  one  or  another  of  these  classes.  Such  a  tabulation, 
however,  is  somewhat  difficult,  and  is  liable  to  errors  because 
there  is  sometimes  an  uncertainty  as  to  just  how  a  particular  indi- 
vidual should  be  classified.  Thus  I  find  one  man  ranked  as  a 
general,  as  a  statesman  and  as  a  philosopher.  In  such  a  case  I 
assume  that  his  military  career  was  due  to  the  circumstances  of  his 
early  life,  that  later  events  brought  him  in  contact  with  the  politi- 
cal affairs  of  his  country  and  compelled  the  exercise  of  statesman- 
ship, but  that  philosophy  was  strictly  a  choice.  Consequently  I 
classify  such  a  man  under  the  head  of  philosophy.  To  guard  as 
much  as  possible  against  errors  creeping  into  such  a  tabulation,  I 
repeated  the  tabulation  several  times,  permitting  a  considerable 
period  of  time  to  elapse  between  the  tabulations.  While  these 
tables  differ  more  or  less  in  detail,  they  are  all  identical  in  general 
results.  The  table  which  appears  most  accurate,  and  which  was 


MENTAL    APTITUDES. 


169 


prepared  with  the  most  care,  is  given  below.  It  will  be  seen  that 
it  makes  little  difference  whether  the  lines  be  read  horizontally  or 
vertically,  the  result  is  substantially  the  same  in  either  case.  Thus, 
under  the  head  of  Morality  and  Philosophy,  the  men  are  most  numer- 
ous when  the  birth-rank  is  high  and  least  numerous  when  it  is 
low.  Also,  taking  men  with  the  highest  birth-rank,  it  will  be  seen 
that  such  men  are  more  liable  to  become  eminent  in  philosophy 
than  in  military  life,  and  that  the  further  they  go  away  from  phil- 
osophical and  moral  subjects  the  less  liable  they  are  to  become  emi- 
nent. Conversely,  men  with  low  birth-ranks  achieve  their  best  suc- 
cess in  military  life  and  their  least  success  when  following  philo- 
sophical studies. 

MENTAL  APTITUDES  OF  236  MEN. 


Cn 

OJ 

a 

H 

^ 

^p 

3 

o 

&3 

Cn 

hv 

a* 

Jv^ 

3 

O 

0 

& 

0. 

7 

§ 

^ 

Morality,  theology,  philanthropy, 

• 

* 

philosophy    

21.... 

15- 

...    7.. 

..  5.. 

...48 

Statesmanship  and  law  

1C.  .  .  . 

33. 

...27.. 

..6.. 

...76 

Fine  arts,  music  and  literature.  . 

9.... 

25- 

...36.. 

.  .  ii.  . 

...81 

Militarv  . 

3. 

4. 

.  8.. 

..16.. 

.31 

Total 43 


77 


78        38        236 


CUSTOM   VERSUS    NATURAL    ABILITY. 

While  the  table  shows  very  plainly,  by  numerical  quantities, 
that  the  cast  of  character  has  a  relationship  to  the  birth-rank,  it 
does  not  tell  the  whole  truth.  A  little  comparison  of  extremes  will 


17O  MENTAL    APTITUDES. 

make  this  clear.  The  three  military  men  with  birth-ranks  over  51 
are  the  British  rear-admirals  Barrington  and  Popham,  and  the 
American  general  Robert  E.  Lee.  The  five  at  the  other  extreme 
are  the  theologians  Channing  and  Cotton  Mather,  the  philosophers 
Helvitius  and  Locke,  and  the  religious  reformer  Mohammed.  I 
found  Barrington  because  he  happened  to  be  one  of  four  brothers, 
and  I  accidentally  ran  across  Popham  when  looking  for  something 
else.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  mental  ability  of  Barrington 
and  of  Popham,  it  is  quite  safe  to  say  that  the  general  public  is 
not  as  familiar  with  their  names  as  with  the  names  of  Nelson  [36], 
Van  Tromp  [32],  and  Decatur  [28].  The  case  of  the  Barringtons 
illustrates  how  custom  reverses  the  natural  mental  aptitudes  of 
sons,  yet  custom  has  not  been  powerful  enough  to  reverse  the  gen- 
eral results  of  our  table.  It  has,  however,  operated  to  spread  out 
the  figures  more  uniformly  than  would  be  the  case  if  natural  tal- 
ents were  given  full  play.  The  Barringtons  consisted  of  four 
brothers,  the  eldest,  W.  W.  [39],  followed  the  usual  English  cus- 
tom and  became  the  statesman  of  the  family;  the  second,  Daines 
[49],  was  a  journalist;  the  third,  Samuel  [A2],  entered  the  navy 
and  became  a  rear-admiral;  and  the  fourth,  Shulte  [56],  became  a 
prelate.  If  we  are  to  judge  by  the  square  inches  of  space  given  to 
the  biographical  sketches  of  each,  of  these  four  brothers,  the  states- 
man and  the  rear-admiral  were  much  less  eminent  than  the  other 
two  brothers.  In  the  light  of  what  our  table  tells  us  it  seems  likely 
that  if  the  eldest  and  third  sons  had  changed  occupations  it  would 
have  been  for  the  mutual  advantage  of  both,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
advantage  to  the  world.  I  do  not  have  the  exact  birth-rank  of 
Popham,  but  I  find  that  he  was  the  twenty-first  child  of  his  father, 
and,  like  English  younger  sons  in  general,  probably  took  to  mili- 
tary life  because  it  was  the  only  thing  open  to  him. 


MENTAL    APTITUDES. 
GRANT  AND  LEE  COMPARED. 

General  Lee  was  a  man  of  great  ability  and  was  the  best  mili- 
tary commander  in  the  Southern  Confederacy.  We  can  probably 
obtain  the  best  estimate  of  his  traits  of  character  by  comparing 
him  with  his  great  opponent,  General  Grant.  While  Grant  was 
distinctly  a  warrior,  he  was  also  known  as  a  man  of  peace,  but 
when  we  analyze  Grant's  campaigns  we  find  every  one  built  strictly 
on  the  lines  of  aggressiveness.  His  objective  was  the  enemy's 
headquarters,  and  his  controlling  principle  was  to  attack  the  enemy 
whenever  and  wherever  he  could  be  found.  On  the  other  hand, 
Lee's  tactics  were  not  of  the  aggressive  character,  but  of  the  kind 
that  seeks  to  manoeuvre  into  a  position  from  which  he  could  dic- 
tate terms,  and  the  sole  object  was  the  defense  of  his  native  state. 
It  is  true  that  he  could  be  aggressive,  as  was  shown  in  the  battle 
of  the  Wilderness,  but  such  aggressiveness  was  not  any  part  of  his 
general  plan  of  campaign.  It  was  simply  the  readiest  means  for 
checking  his  opponent.  In  youth  Lee  was  sent  to  West  Point,  and 
during  his  early  life  he  was  a  skilful  military  engineer  in  charge  of  a 
number  of  important  constructions.  Upon  the  secession  of  Vir- 
ginia from  the  Union,  Lee  said  in  his  resignation  sent  to  General 
Scott :  "Save  in  defense  of  my  native  state,  I  never  desire  again 
to  draw  my  sword/'  and  he  made  the  same  statement  in  several 
other  letters  written  about  the  same  time.  This  is  the  principal 
military  commander  in  the  list  of  men  having  birth-ranks  over  51, 
and  shows  a  cast  of  character  very  sharply  distinguished  from  that 
of  a  Napoleon  or  an  Alexander. 

THEOLOGIANS    WITH   LOW   BIRTH-RANKS. 

Of  our  theologians  at  the  other  extreme,  we  find  Channing  [29] 
with  a  birth-rank  very  close  to  our  dividing  line  leading  to  the 


172  MENTAL   APTITUDES. 

Fine  Arts,  and  we  find  him  described  as  of  the  "poetic  order."  In 
the  theological  disagreement  between  the  liberals  and  orthodox  we 
find  him  the  aggressive  leader  of  the  liberals.  It  is  said  that  the 
lessons  of  his  mother,  the  death  of  his  father,  and  the  influence 
of  a  revival  took  him  into  theology.  Although  our  table  classifies 
him  with  the  philosophers,  we  find  little  in  this  that  would  identify 
him  with  Aristotle,  Bacon,  Buddha  or  Confucius. 

Our  other  theologian,  Cotton  Mather  [24],  is  principally  emi- 
nent for  a  great  mass  of  publications  of  doubtful  value,  and  for  his 
connection  with  the  witchcraft  persecutions.  He  furnished  much 
of  the  evidence  which  caused  the  executions,  and  among  other 
things  he  discovered  [?]  that  the  devils  were  familiar  with  Latin, 
Greek  and  Hebrew,  but  were  less  skilled  in  the  Indian  languages. 
Even  after  public  opinion  changed,  he  never  expressed  regret  for 
the  innocent  blood  that  had  been  shed.  This  is  in  strong  contrast 
with  his  father,  Increase  Mather  [43],  who  condemned  the  witch- 
craft proceedings. 

It  has  been  said  that  Locke's  "whole  life  was  a  warfare  against 
the  enemies  of  freedom  in  speculation,  freedom  in  worship,  and  free- 
dom from  every  unnecessary  political  restraint."  While  this  is 
hardly  enough  to  identify  his  character  with  that  of  our  military 
men,  it  separates  it  from  that  of  Confucius,  whose  sole  aim  was  to 
teach  philosophy  and  morality. 

The  case  of  Locke,  however,  is  peculiar  in  that  his  mother 
was  more  than  nine  years  older  than  her  husband,  consequently  if 
his  birth-rank  be  calculated  from  his  mother,  or  from  the  mother 
and  father  combined,  he  would  not  appear  in  this  group  at  all. 

Of  Helvetius  [30]  I  have  not  been  able  to  obtain  enough  in- 
formation to  warrant  me  in  making  any  comment.  His  father, 
however,  has  a  birth-rank  of  55. 


MENTAL   APTITUDES.  173 

CHARACTER  OF  MOHAMMED. 

Of  our  five  men  there  remains  only  Mohammed,  who  is  ordi- 
narily classed  with  Buddha,  Confucius  and  Moses  because  he  is 
the  founder  of  a  great  religion,  but  in  cast  of  character  he  is 
removed  from  these  men  by  an  almost  infinite  distance.  Instead 
of  teaching  and  practicing  peace  and  good  will  toward  men,  we 
find  him  spreading  his  doctrines  by  means  of  the  sword.  During 
the  first  years  of  the  Hegira  he  proclaimed  war  against  unbe- 
lievers and  commenced  with  attacks  upon  caravans  of  pilgrims. 
He  was  continually  engaged  in  aggressive  warfare,  and  even  at- 
tempted to  overthrow  the  Byzantine  Empire.  Evidently  Moham- 
med was  more  nearly  like  Alexander  than  he  was  like  Buddha  or 
Confucius. 

If  we  should  extend  this  inquiry  it  could  easily  be  shown  that 
Handel  [63]  was  principally  famous  for  his  church  music;  Dante 
[A]  and  Milton  [45]  for  their  great  moral  and  religious  epics; 
Swift  [27]  for  his  attacks  upon  the  politicians  of  his  day;  and  so 
on  through  a  large  number  of  other  persons  who  are  more  or  less 
removed  from  our  established  centers.  But  the  multiplication  of 
examples  is  unnecessary.  Enough  has  been  given  to  show  that  the 
cast  of  character  as  well  as  the  mental  capacity  is  very  strongly 
influenced  by  the  age  of  the  father  at  the  time  of  the  child's  birth. 

GROUP  OF  POETS  EXAMINED.     . 

Comparatively  early  in  my  investigation  I  drew  off  from  my 
lists  the  names  of  eight  poets  for  the  purpose  of  studying  them  in 
their  relationship  to  each  other.  At  the  time  this  short  list  was 
made,  these  persons  were  the  only  poets  whose  birth-ranks  I  then 
had.  Because  I  had  obtained  some  outside  opinions  in  regard  to 


174  MENTAL    APTITUDES. 

these  persons  before  I  had  the  birth-ranks  of  others  who  might 
have  been  added,  I  have  retained  the  group  as  it  was  originally 
made.  I  am  not  sure  that  I  am  right  in  placing  Dante  first  in  the 
order  of  birth-ranks,  but  the  indications  are  that  he  belongs  in  this 
place. 

EIGHT  POETS  IN  ORDER  OF  BIRTH-RANK. 

1    Dante    (i2O+x)-r-3 

2   Pope   47 

3   Milton 45 

4  Goethe    39-53 

5    Burns    38 

6    Schiller     36-43 

7 Byron  32-33-54 

8   Longfellow    31-26-27 

In  Dante  we  have  a  poet  of  the  moral,  religious  and  philosoph- 
ical type.  In  Pope  we  have  a  poet  whose  writings  are  all  of  the 
moral  and  philosophical  character  with  hardly  anything  of  the  re- 
ligious. In  Milton  we  have  the  grand  religious  epics  similar  to 
the  case  of  Dante.  We  also  have  descriptive  poems  and  poems  of 
sentiment.  Outside  of  poetry  Milton  was  a  statesman  and  the 
foremost  champion  of  English  liberty.  With  Goethe  we  have  the 
philosophical,  the  dramatic,  the  lyrical,  pastoral  poems,  ballads  and 
oriental  songs.  With  Burns  we  have  poems  of  sentiment,  of  love, 
of  sorrow  and  of  religion.  From  Schiller  we  have  dramatic  poetry, 
descriptive  poetry  and  ballads,  the  whole  of  which  are  character- 
ized by  high  intellectual  and  moral  culture.  With  Byron  we  have 
descriptive  poems  and  poems  of  passion.  With  Longfellow  we 
have  poetry  almost  purely  descriptive  and  depending  for  its  charms 
on  beauty  of  expression.  Comparing  the  mental  aptitudes  and 
characteristics  of  these  men  with  those  of  our  hypothetical  ancestor 


MENTAL    APTITUDES.  175 

at  his  different  stages  of  life,  we  find  almost  an  absolute  corre- 
spondence. Whatever  changes  in  their  order  might  be  made  that 
would  bring  them  into  closer  accordance  with  our  hypothetical 
changes  of  character,  such  changes  would  certainly  be  small. 

POETS  ESTIMATED  BY  PUBLIC  EDUCATORS. 

When  we  come  to  compare  these  men  as  to  their  relative  mental 
ability  instead  of  in  the  relationship  of  their  mental  aptitudes  we 
find  a  somewhat  different  state  of  affairs.  To  get  a  fair  estimate 
I  arranged  these  eight  poets  in  alphabetical  order  and  asked  a  num- 
ber of  prominent  educators  to  rearrange  them  according  to  their 
intellectual  greatness.  An  average  of  these  estimates  places  these 
men  in  the  following  order: 

EIGHT  POETS  IN   THE  ORDER  OF  THEIR  GREATNESS. 

1    Goethe    39-53 

2    Dante   ( i2O-f-x)  3 

3    Milton    45 

4 Schiller 36-43 

5  Byron  32-33-54 

6 Burns    38 

7  Pope   47 

8  Longfellow    31-26-27 

The  most  marked  change  in  this  arrangement  as  compared  to  the 
previous  one  is  the  rise  of  Goethe  and  the  fall  of  Pope.  The  other 
changes  are  comparatively  insignificant  and  are  not  more  than 
would  be  expected  from  comparatively  small  differences  in  the  men- 
tal activity  of  their  parents.  It  remains  to  be  seen  if  we  can  find  a 
sufficient  explanation  for  these  two  changes. 


176  MENTAL   APTITUDES. 

GOETHE  AND  POPE. 

In  the  ancestry  of  Goethe  we  find  that  the  grandfather  had,  from 
a  source  which  we  can  only  surmise,  as  biography  is  silent  on  the 
point,  sufficient  mental  ability  to  raise  himself  somewhat  above  the 
class  from  which  he  sprang,  and  that  he  was  fifty-three  years  old 
before  his  son  was  born.  This  son,  the  father  of  Goethe,  was  a  very 
severe  student  and  applied  himself  with  great  energy  to  his  own 
education.  When  he  was  at  the  age  of  thirty-nine,  and  conse- 
quently after  great  mental  training,  his  son,  the  poet,  was  born. 
The  mother  of  Goethe  was  quite  young  herself,  but  she  was  the 
daughter  of  an  educated  official  when  he  was  thirty-eight,  and 
through  this. source  we  would  have  transmission  by  sex.  In  addi- 
tion to  this  Goethe  was  endowed  with  a  magnificent  physique  and 
was  given  the  best  possible  education.  We  thus  have  in  the  hered- 
ity of  Goethe  all  of  the  factors  that  tend  toward  development  as 
very  high  except  the  birth-rank  39,  which  is  only  moderately  high. 
It  is  therefore  quite  evident  that  the  figure  39,  taken  by  itself,  is 
not  a  fair  estimate  of  Goethe  when  comparing  him  with  other  per- 
sons. 

In  the  case  of  Pope  I  cannot  find  the  birth-rank  of  his  father, 
but  I  find  that  his  mother  was  the  daughter  of  a  man  forty-five 
years  of  age.  In  transmission  by  sex,  this  [45]  is  as  potent  an 
influence  as  it  would  be  if  it  were  the  father's  instead  of  the  moth- 
er's birth-rank.  Although  Pope  is  placed  low  in  the  scale  of  these 
eight  poets,  it  is  clear  that  if  we  should  consider  him  purely  from 
the  intellectual  standpoint  he  would  be  placed  in  a  somewhat  higher 
position. 

We  know,  however,  that  Pope  was  handicapped  by  physical 
infirmities  which  he  inherited  from  both  parents,  and  which  made 


DANTE   [A] 


POPE  [47] 


MILTON  [45] 


GOETHE   [39] 


BURNS  [38] 


SCHILLER   [36] 


BYRON   [32] 


LONGFELLOW    [31] 


MENTAL    APTITUDES. 

it  necessary  for  him  to  have  assistance  in  dressing  himself  and  even 
in  walking.  Hence  we  have  one  factor  in  his  heredity  that  is 
smaller  with  him  than  with  any  other  of  the  eight  persons. 

SCHILLER,  BURNS  AND  SHAKESPEARE. 

With  Schiller  we  find  that  his  father  had  a  birth-rank  higher 
than  he  did,  a  fact  that  would  tend  to  raise  him  in  the  scale  of 
mental  capacity.  With  Burns  we  find  that  his  ancestors  had  lim- 
ited educational  facilities,  a  fact  that  would  act  to  bring  him  down 
in  the  scale. 

Taking  the  two  arrangements  together,  we  find  that  a  man's 
birth-rank  is  a  very  accurate  gauge  of  his  mental  aptitude,  but  only  a 
partially  accurate  gauge  of  his  mental  ability.  We  also  find  that 
when  we  add  to  the  birth-rank  the  other  factors  that  enter  into  a 
man's  heredity,  the  combination  of  these  factors  gives  us  a  remarka- 
bly accurate  gauge  of  his  mental  powers. 

Among  poets  comes  Shakespeare,  and  I  have  previously  shown 
that  his  birth-rank  is  somewhere  between  31  and  40,  and  probably 
about  35  or  36.  I  have  also  shown  that  the  birth-ranks  of  both 
of  his  parents  are  probably  over  45.  If  there  be  any  truth  what- 
ever in  what  our  tables  tell  us,  then  this  ancestry  is  the  ideal  one 
for  producing  such  a  character  as  Shakespeare.  We  have  mental 
power  developed  in  both  parents  by  virtue  of  both  being  children 
of  old  grandparents,  and  in  at  least  one  case  the  accumulation  ex- 
tends back  still  another  generation.  We  then  have  a  case  of  in- 
and-in  breeding  from  these  two  with  the  production  at  the  time 
of  life  which  produces  the  literary  and  poetical  character.  This 
ancestry  is  very  similar  to  those  of  Goethe  and  Schiller,  except 
that  the  mother  was  older  and  the  mother's  birth-rank  was  higher 
with  Shakespeare  than  with  either  of  the  other  two. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

EMINENT  FAMILIES. 

Mr.  Gallon  has  given  much  attention  to  the  inheritance  of  men- 
tal ability,  especially  in  its  relationship  to  great  men.  On  page  74 
of  Hereditary  Genius  he  gives  a  diagram  of  the  eminent  relatives 
of  the  most  eminent  men  in  one  hundred  families.  This  diagram 
shows  that  the  closer  the  relationship  is  to  an  eminent  man  the 
greater  are  the  probabilities  that  the  related  person  will  also  be  emi- 
nent. The  principal  part  of  this  diagram  may  be  tabulated  as 
follows : 

To  the  most  eminent  men  of  one  hundred  families, 

Of  the  sons  36  per  cent  are  eminent ; 
Of  the  fathers  26  per  cent  are  eminent ; 
Of  the  brothers  23  per  cent  are  eminent; 
Of  the  grandsons  9.5  per  cent  are  eminent; 
Of  the  grandfathers  7.5  per  cent  are  eminent; 
Of  the  nephews  4.75  per  cent  are  eminent; 
Of  the  uncles  4.5  per  cent  are  eminent. 

THE  FACTS   AND  THEIR   MEANING. 

Mr.  Galton  gives  us  these  facts,  but  he  gives  us  no  explanation 
beyond  the  one  that  mental  ability  is  hereditary.  The  sons  of  emi- 
nent men  do  not  suffer  from  lack  of  educational  opportunities  nor 
social  disadvantages.  There  is  every  reason  why  they  should  have 
become  eminent  if  they  had  had  the  quality  out  of  which  eminence 
is  created.  In  fact,  with  the  opportunities  that  such  sons  have, 
"many  a  mute,  inglorious  Milton"  would  have  achieved  fame. 

Most  of  the  men  who  have  filled  large  pages  in  the  history  of 

178 


EMINENT  FAMILIES.  179 

the  world  have  been  men  of  more  than  ordinary  ability,  but  many 
have  been  men  who  would  not  have  been  famous  if  they  had  not 
had  social,  political  or  military  advantages  such  as  come  to  few 
persons.  It  will  be  quite  evident  that  when  a  man  has  such  oppor- 
tunities in  this  world  as  usually  fall  to  the  sons  of  great  men  it 
takes  less  mental  ability  to  become  eminent  than  when  he  has  to 
achieve  greatness  by  the  force  of  his  own  mental  powers.  Why 
then,  it  may  be  asked,  is  it  that  only  36  per  cent  of  the  sons  of 
eminent  men  succeed  while  64  per  cent  fail?  The  answer  is,  of 
course,  the  mothers  are  not  equal  to  the  fathers,  and  it  is  conse- 
quently not  to  be  expected  that  tha  sons  will  be  better  than  an 
average  of  the  two.  There  is  much  truth  in  this  answer,  but  it  is 
not  a  full  answer,  because  of  the  sons  of  the  same  parents  some  be- 
come eminent  and  others  do  not.  We  will  find  a  more  complete 
answer  in  the  ages  at  which  these  great  men  have  produced  their 
sons,  and  to  this  end  I  have  analyzed  a  number  of  cases  in  which 
families  have  maintained  their  eminence  through  several  gener- 
ations. 

THE  BACH  FAMILY. 

This  is  a  German  family  of  musicians,  and  is  the  most  cele- 
brated for  the  number  of  its  eminent  men  and  the  great  length  of 
time  which  it  has  maintained  its  eminence.  There  have  been  more 
than  fifty  eminent  musicians  in  it,  and  their  history  covers  a  period 
of  more  than  200  years.  The  founder  of  the  family  was  Veit 
Bach,  who,  about  the  year  1600,  was  driven  out  of  Presburg, 
Hungary,  by  religious  persecutions,  and  settled,  with  his  family, 
in  Germany.  He  had  received  a  musical  education,  and  was  noted 
for  his  skill  upon  the  guitar.  The  date  of  his  birth  is  not  given. 
His  eldest  son,  Hans  Bach,  also  received  a  musical  education,  and 


EMINENT   FAMILIES. 


was  the  progenitor  of  the  larger  number  of  those  who  became 
eminent  as  musicians.  Hans  died  in  1626,  and  he  either  died 
young  or  his  sons  were  born  late  in  his  life  as  will  appear  from 
the  following  diagram. 

Veit  Bach,  d.  1619. 
Hans  Bach,  b.  about  1563;  d.  1626. 


Johann  (1604)        Christoph  (1613)  [50?]       Heinrich  (1615) 


JohannA.         GeorgC.       Johann  A.       Johann  C.       Johann  M. 
(1645)  [4i]    (1642) [29]  (1645)  [32]    (1643)  [28]    (1660)  [45] 


Johann  B. 

(1676) 


Johann  Sebastian 
(1685)  [40] 


Johann  E.     Wilhelm  F.     Karl  P.  E.     Johann  C.  F.     Johann  C. 
(1722)        (1710)  [25]  (1714)  [29]     (1732)  [47]    (1735)  [50] 

Of  these,  Johann  Sebastian  (1685)  [40]  was  "in  some  respects 
the  greatest  musician  that  has  lived."  His  ancestry  is  medium, 
tending  toward  the  old,  which  would  make  it  conform  with  what 
I  have  shown  as  to  the  characters  at  different  ages.  His  sons 
Wilhelm  and  Karl  represent  the  earliest  reproduction  of  those  who 
are  chronicled  as  being  especially  eminent.  Their  mother  happens, 
however,  to  have  been  a  daughter  of  Johann  M.  (1660)  [45],  who 
was  Johann  Sebastian's  first  wife.  This  appears  to  be  an  illustra- 
tion of  inheritance  by  sex,  as  Johann  M.  was,  in  many  respects,  a 
remarkable  musician.  Johann  C.  F.  (1732)  [47]  and  Johann  C. 


EMINENT  FAMILIES.  l8l 

(1735)  [50],  tenth  and  eleventh  sons  respectively  of  Johann  Se- 
bastian, are  noted  as  being  the  most  eminent  of  their  generation, 
as  they  are  also  the  sons  of  the  greatest  reproductive  age.  Johann 
A.  (1645)  [41]  is  said 'to  have  been  the  "most  noted"  musician  in 
his  branch.  If  we  take  the  entire  series  of  which  we  have  a  record 
we  find  the  average  father's  age  to  be  36  years. 

THE    CARPZOV    FAMILY. 

This  is  a  family  of  learned  Germans,  more  intellectual  than 
the  Bach  family  but  less  famous  because  law,  theology  and  phil- 
'osophy  are  less  popular  than  music.  The  founder  of  the  family 
was  Simon  Carpzov,  who  was  burgomaster  of  Brandenburg  about 
1550.  As  a  man  is  not  likely  to  hold  such  a  position  before  the 
age  of  35,  the  rank  of  his  son  is  presumed  to  be  about  [50]. 
Without  counting  this  one,  however,  we  find  that  the  average 
father's  age  of  all  of  those  who  are  recorded  is  42  years. 

Simon  Carpzov,  Burgomaster  about  1550. 


irgomj 
Benedict  (1565)  [50?] 


Benedict.  Johann  B.  August  B. 

(1595)  [32]  (1607)  [42]  (1612)  [47] 


Johann  B.  X  Samuel  B.  Frederick  B. 


(1639)  [32] 


(1647)  [40]  (1649)  [42] 


Johann  B.  (1720)  [113-7-2].  Johann  G.   (1679) 


l82  EMINENT  FAMILIES. 

As  this  is  a  very  unusual  average,  and  as  it  is  known  that 
there  were  a  number  of  other  Carpzovs  than  those  detailed  in  the 
Encyclopedia  Britannica,  it  is  only  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the 
less  eminent  members  of  the  family  were  those  who  were  born 
during  their  fathers'  early  lives.  Simon  Carpzov,  the  founder 
of  the  family,  was  descended  from  a  Spanish  family  by  the  name 
of  Carpezano  which  was  driven  out  of  Spain  by  religious  perse- 
cution early  in  the  sixteenth  century. 

THE  CARNOT  FAMILY. 

This  is  a  family  of  French  statesmen,  the  last  of  whom  was 
president  of  the  French  Republic,  and  was  assassinated  in  1894. 
The  average  father's  age  for  the  six  individuals  is  39  years.  It 
will  be  noticed  that  the  line  of  eminence  continues  from  that  son 
of  Claude  Carnot  (1719)  [48],  who  in  his  turn  had  a  son,  Lazarre 
H.  Carnot  (1801)  [48],  born  in  late  life.  If  we  take  the  average 
of  the  line  that  continues  to  the  president,  we  find  it  to  be  41  years. 

Edme  Carnot  (1671) 

Claude  (1719)  [48] 


Joseph  F.  Lazarre  N.  M.  Claude  Marie 

TWW  [33]  (1753)  [34]  (1755)  [36] 

Lazarre  Hippolyte  (1801)   [48] 
SadiN.  L.  (1837)  [36] 

THE  BERNOUILLI  FAMILY. 

This  is  a  French  family  of  famous  mathematicians.    It  begins 
with  three  brothers,  in  which  we  have  the  surprising  difference  in 


EMINENT  FAMILIES.  183 

ages  of  44  years  between  the  eldest  and  youngest.  The  eldest, 
who  must  have  been  born  in  his  father's  early  life,  had  eleven 
children,  of  whom  we  have  the  record  of  only  the  one  born  when 
his  father  was  64.  The  youngest,  who  was  the  most  famous  and 
was  classed  with  Newton  and  Leibnitz,  had  three  sons,  and  the 
line  of  eminence  was  continued  to  the  third  generation  only  through 
the  youngest  of  these.  We  have  the  birth-ranks  of  six  of  these 
individuals,  and  the  average  for  the  six  is  42  years. 

James,  b — 1598? 


Nicholas  James  John 

(1623) 


Nicholas  Nicholas          Daniel  John 

(1687)  [64]          (1695)  [28]  (1700)  [33]  (1710)  [43] 


f  l 

John  James 

(1744)  [34]       (1759)  [49] 


THE   COLIGNY  FAMILY. 

This  is  a  French  family  of  statesmen  and  soldiers.  The  line 
begins  with  Caspar d  Coligny,  born  1470,  who  had  three  sons.  The 
second  of  these,  Gaspard  (1519)  [49],  was  the  leader  of  the 
Huguenots.  Here  again  we  see  the  line  continued  through  the 
slowest  moving  generations.  The  average  for  the  seven  known 
persons  is  46  years. 


i84 


EMINENT  FAMILIES. 


Gaspard  Coligny  (1470) 


Jean 


[47] 


Gaspard 

[49] 


Francois 

(1557)  [38] 


Charles 
(1564)  [45] 


Francois 
[61] 


Gaspard 

(1584)  [53] 

Gaspard 
(1615) 


THE   LIVINGSTON    FAMILY. 

This  is  a  family  of  Americans  who  have  become  eminent  in 
several  lines.  Of  these  William  [37]  and  Edward  [45]  were  more 
eminent  than  the  others  and  they  are  the  ones  with  the  highest  birth- 
ranks. 

Robert  Livingston  (1654) 


Philip  Robert 

(1686)  [32]    (1688)  [34] 


Philip  William          Robert  R. 

(1717)  [3i]    (1723)  [37]    (1719)  [3 


Gilbert 
(1690)  [36] 


Brockholtz  Robt.  R.  Edward  John  H. 

(1757)  [35]    (1746)  [27]    (1764)  [45]    (1746)    [56-^-2] 


EMINENT  FAMILIES. 


THE   DANA    FAMILY. 


i85. 


This  is  another  American  family  which  has  furnished  many 
eminent  members.  Here  again  we  see  the  lines  of  eminence  con- 
tinued through  the  younger  branches  of  the  family,  i.  e.,  through 
the  late  reproductions.  Of  the  four  brothers  in  the  second  genera- 
tion, the  two  elder  brothers  have  left  no  immediate  descendants  of 
whom  we  have  record.  The  third  brother  had  six  descendants,  of 
whom  four  may  be  considered  eminent,  while  to  the  youngest 
brother  are  traced  ten  descendants,  and  among  these  ten  are  found 
the  most  eminent.  The  same  general  results  may  be  traced  in 
the  Adams  family,  in  the  Lee  family  of  Virginia,  and  among  the 
Darwins,  the  Herschels,  the  Cannings,  and  the  Sidneys. 

Richard   Dana,   b.    about  1620. 


Jacob. 
(1655)  [35] 

Joseph.        Benjamin. 
(1656)  [36]        (1660)  [40] 

Daniel. 
(1663)  [43] 

ard. 
[37} 

icis. 
[43] 

Henry. 
[44] 

tenry,  Jr. 
[28] 

Benjamin. 
(1689)  [29] 

Isaac.          Joseph.          Will 
(1697)  [37]     (1700)  [40]        (1703 

Rev.  Joseph.  Rev.  S 
(1740)  [40]       (1635 

iam.         Thomas, 
i  [43]        (1694)  [31] 

Caleb. 
(1697)  [34] 

Ricl 
(1700 

Fra 
(1743 

Richard 
(1787 

Richard  I 
(1815) 

amuel.  Rev.  James 
)  [32]       (1733)  [36] 

George. 
(1744)  [47] 

James. 
(1780)  [36] 

James  Dwight. 
(1813)  [33] 

THE  BLISS    FAMILY. 

This  family  is  not  taken  up  for  its  eminence  but  for  the  pur- 
pose of  determining  which  one  of  a  man's  grandsons  is  most  likely 
to  become  a  prominent  citizen.  The  Bliss  family  was  chosen  for 
this  purpose  because  the  published  genealogy  of  the  family  is 
unusually  complete  and  is  arranged  for  easy  reference.  For  con- 
venience the  different  members  of  the  family  will  be  represented 


l86  EMINENT  FAMILIES. 

by  the  numbers  used  to  designate  them  in  the  genealogy  rather 
than  by  their  names. 

The  family  begins  with  three  brothers  who  emigrated  to  Amer- 
ica in  the  seventeenth  century.  These  three  brothers  all  had  families, 
among  the  children  of  whom  were  seven  grandsons  of  the  English 
progenitor.  These  grandsons  constitute  a  group,  and  when  the 
word  "group"  is  used  in  this  connection  it  will  mean  an  assem- 
blage of  persons  who  are  all  grandsons  of  one  man,  and  who  trace 
their  descent  through  two  or  more  brothers.  They  are  in  fact 
cousins  bearing  the  same  surname.  These  seven  cousins  were  born 
between  1600  and  1645,  and  the  only  prominent  individual  among 
them  was  No.  19,  the  last  born  in  point  of  time. 

No.  20  had  eight  grandsons,  the  first  born  in  1673  and  the  last 
in  1702.  The  sixth  was  a  lieutenant  and  the  last  was  a  captain. 
No.  29  had  eight  grandsons,  the  fourth  being  a  "curious  mechanic" 
and  the  last  had  "M.  D."  and  "Hon."  tacked  to  his  name  and  was 
the  founder  of  the  school  system  of  Connecticut.  No.  32  had 
nine  grandsons,  the  first  born  in  1704  and  the  last  in  1734.  The 
prominent  ones  were  those  born  in  1727  and  1734.  No.  44 
had  eight  grandsons,  of  whom  the  fourth,  fifth  and  seventh  were 
prominent.  No.  46  had  fourteen  grandsons,  of  whom  the  sixth, 
eleventh,  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  were  prominent.  These  four- 
teen persons  were  sons  of  five  brothers  and  three  of  the  four  prom- 
inent ones  were  sons  of  the  only  one  of  the  five  brothers  who 
received  a  college  education. 

INFLUENCE  OF  THE  COLLEGE  GRADUATE. 

No.  53  was  a  youngest  son.  He  had  a  birth  rank  of  [59]  and 
his  father  had  a  birth  rank  of  [42].  Of  the  seven  grandsons  of 
No.  53,  the  first  one,  and  last  two  were  prominent.  The  first  was  a 


EMINENT   FAMILIES.  187 

judge  and  the  last  was  a  general.  The  judge  graduated  at  Yale 
and  was  the  only  one  of  the  seven  having  the  benefit  of  a  college 
education.  No.  130  was  the  son  of  No.  53  and  was  the  father 
of  the  judge  and  the  general.  He  had  eighteen  grandchildren,  of 
whom  the  first  three,  the  seventh,  the  fourteenth  and  the  eighteenth 
were  prominent.  The  first  three  born  were  all  sons'  of  the  only 
person  in  the  previous  generation  who  received  a  college  education 
and  they  represent  the  only  case  I  have  found  in  which  the  first 
three  of  any  group  all  became  prominent.  They  are  a  forcible 
illustration  of  the  fact  that  the  controlling  factor  is  not  the  relative 
amount  of  time  elapsing  between  generations  but  the  aggregate 
amount  of  intellectual  effort  exerted  in  previous  generations  prior 
to  reproduction.  While  being  sons  of  a  college  graduate  is  the 
only  path  by  which  the  first  three  of  a  group  became  prominent, 
it  is  not  uncommon  to  find  the  last  three  prominent  without  any 
college  education  in  the  previous  generation.  This  is  the  case 
with  the  grandsons  of  No.  68  and  No.  84. 

OTHER  FAMILIES. 

An  examination  similar  to  that  made  of  the  Bliss  family  was 
also  made  for  the  Crosby,  Chapman,  Eddy  and  other  families.  The 
general  results  were  that  when  the  first  born  of  a  group  of  cousins 
became  a  prominent  individual  there  was  almost  invariably  present 
one  or  more  of  three  conditions : — first,  all  of  the  cousins  were  born 
at  near  the  same  date  so  that  comparatively  few  years  elapsed  be- 
tween the  first  birth  and  the  last  birth ;  second,  the  first  born  had 
advantages  of  education  that  the  others  did  not  have;  and  third, 
the  first  born  was  the  son  of  a  college  graduate  while  others  were 
not.  When  the  last  born  of  a  group  of  cousins  was  prominent 
these  conditions  were  more  often  absent  than  present.  It  is  natural 


1 88  EMINENT   FAMILIES. 

that  they  should  be,  as  these  conditions  applied  to  only  a  small 
portion  of  the  population  during  the  early  history  of  America. 

From  the  various  families  47  groups  of  cousins  (grandsons) 
containing  503  persons  were  tabulated  by  groups  according  to  the 
order  of  their  births.  The  smallest  group  had  six  individuals  and 
the  largest  group  had  twenty-six.  In  the  47  groups 

Of  the  first  born 6  were  prominent. 

Of  the  second  born 12  were  prominent. 

Of  the  third  born. 12  were  prominent. 

Of  the  third  from  last 19  were  prominent. 

Of  the  next  to  last 22  were  prominent. 

Of  the  last 20  were  prominent. 

Of  the  first  born  half 53  were  prominent. 

Of  the  last  born  half 93  were  prominent. 

These  results  show  the  distinct  advantage  arising  from  a  child 
being  born  a  long  time  after  his  grandfather  was  born.  If  we 
should  eliminate  from  our  table  all  of  those  who  were  sons  of  col- 
lege graduates  it  would  show  a  much  greater  disparity  between  the 
earlier  born  and  later  born  portions,  from  which  fact  it  must  be 
evident  that  a  college  education  in  a  previous  generation  materially 
affects  the  child's  opportunities  of  becoming  prominent. 

THE  CONDE  FAMILY. 

This  is  the  name  of  a  younger  branch  of  the  Bourbon  family 
and  is  inserted  here  by  way  of  illustration  and  not  because  its  mem- 
bers were  eminent  for  mental  achievements. 

One  of  these  is  called  the  great  Conde,  but  it  is  not  number  3 
nor  number  8,  as  might  be  presumed,  but  number  4.  A  little  ex- 
planation will  show  the  reason  for  this.  The  first  Conde  was  the 
youngest  brother  of  Antoine  de  Bourbon,  and  we  may  assume  that 


EMINENT  FAMILIES. 


189 


he  had  a  comparatively  high  birth-rank.  In  addition  to  this  we 
find  that  these  brothers  came  from  the  youngest  branch  of  the  ducal 
family.  We  thus  see  that  number  4  was  the  termination  of  four 
or  five  generations,  in  all  but  one  of  which  the  birth-rank  was  high. 
In  number  3  there  was  a  considerable  accumulation  from  number  2, 
and  as  number  3  was  active  and  slightly  above  the  average  age 
when  number  4  was  born,  number  4  was  an  advance  on  number  3. 
The  accumulated  mental  power  of  number  4  was  run  down  to  a 


FIG.    IO.       BIRTH-RANKS  OF  THE  CONDES. 

low  ebb  by  three  successive  births  at  early  ages,  with  the  conse- 
quence that  one  birth  at  a  late  age  did  not  suffice  to  re-establish  it. 
Number  3  and  number  8  are,  however,  ranked  next  to  number  4 
in  greatness,  and  much  above  the  other  members  of  the  family. 
Number  7  is  the  least  important  of  all  of  them,  and  he  is  the  termi- 
nation of  three  successive  early  reproductions.  The  one  of  next 
least  importance  is  number  9,  who  was  born  when  number  8  was 
only  nineteen. 

From  these  we  may  draw  the  general  conclusion  that  two  gen- 


EMINENT  FAMILIES. 

erations  of  late  reproduction  may  support  one  generation  of  com- 
paratively early  reproduction,  but  that  two  generations  of  early 
reproduction  are  fatal  to  the  maintenance  of  eminence.  That  two 
generations  of  late  reproduction  will  not  always  accomplish  this 
result  we  can  readily  see  by  studying  some  of  the  sons  of  great 
men. 

GREAT  MEN  AND  THEIR  SONS. 

Solomon,  commonly  called  "the  wisest  man,"  was  a  late  repro- 
duction and  inherited  his  ability  from  his  father,  David,  who  was 
also  a  late  reproduction.  According  to  the  usual  interpretation  of 
the  laws  of  inheritance,  his  son  should  also  have  been  a  wise  man, 
but  we  do  not  hear  that  Rehoboam  was  a  second  Solomon.  An 
inspection  of  the  Bible  chronology  shows  us  that  Rehoboam  was 
born  when  Solomon  was  seventeen  years  of  age.  Rehoboam  could 
not  be  the  recipient  of  use-inheritance  from  Solomon,  because  at 
that  age  Solomon  had  not  exercised  his  wisdom,  and  whatever 
Solomon  acquired  after  his  son  was  conceived  could  not  possibly 
affect  that  son. 

We  learn  that  Buddha  was  a  late  reproduction,  and  also  that 
his  only  son  was  born  before  he  went  forth  on  his  mission.  After 
leaving  home  he  spent  six  years  in  one  place,  unknown  lengths  of 
time  in  two  or  three  other  places,  and  forty-five  additional  years  in 
teaching.  He  died  at  about  the  age  of  eighty.  From  this  it  is 
quite  evident  that  the  son  was  born  when  Buddha  was  quite  young. 

BIRTH-RANKS  OF  GREAT  MEN  AND  OF  THEIR  SONS. 
GREAT  MEN.  SONS. 

Ampere 25 

A Arkwright 23 

49 Bulwer-Lytton  25 

Champollion   22 


EMINENT  FAMILIES.  19! 

GREAT   MEN.  SONS. 

53 Coleridge 24 

43  ? Cromwell 27 

A3 Dibdin 26 

Draper 24 

51 Franklin  23 

Hunt  26 

44 Jay 28 

Kean  24 

43 Mather 24 

43 Peter  the  Great 18 

43 Pugin 22 

52 Solomon  17 

Stephenson    22 

The  accompanying  table  gives  the  birth-ranks  of  a  number  of  the 
sons  of  great  men,  and  also  that  of  the  men  themselves  when  known. 
This  distinction  is  sharp  and  follows  the  difference  in  mental  ability. 
In  his  "Hereditary  Genius/'  Galton  remarks  that  the  Cromwell 
blood  does  not  seem  to  have  been  as  potent  as  was  to  have  been 
expected.  While  we  do  not  know  Cromwell's  birth-rank  exactly, 
we  know  that  he  was  a  fifth  child  and  that  he  belonged  to  a  slowly 
moving  line  extending  back  five  generations  to  a  common  ancestor 
with  Charles  L,  whose  line  to  the  same  ancestor  was  eight  genera- 
tions. We  also  know  that  his  mother  was  39  when  he  was  born, 
and  that  his  father  was  the  second  of  four  brothers,  all  of  whom 
sat  in  Parliament  before  Cromwell's  birth.  We  have  seen  that  a 
birth-rank  of  27  will  sometimes  produce  eminent  men,  but  as  an 
ancestry  as  slowly  moving  as  that  of  Cromwell  is  somewhat  rare, 
it  is  not  at  all  probable  that  his  wife  was  as  well  endowed.  Cham- 
pollion  had  a  brother  thirteen  years  old,  and  Hunt  was  the  young- 
est of  a  large  family. 


192  EMINENT  FAMILIES. 

EFFECT  OF  PRIMOGENITURE. 

The  English  aristocracy  is  governed  by  the  law  of  primogeni- 
ture, which  is  a  strict  selection  of  the  eldest  of  the  eldest  to  inherit 
the  title.  Great  care  and  pains  are  always  taken  to  train  and 
educate  the  heir  to  fill  the  position  to  which  the  law  entitles  him. 
When  he  grows  to  man's  estate  he  has  wealth,  social  position  and 
political  influence  to  assist  him  in  any  career  he  may  choose.  From 
this  class  England  draws  the  majority  of  those  persons  who  hold 
official  positions  at  home  or  abroad.  Many  of  these  men  have 
become  prominent,  some  have  become  eminent  and  a  few  have  be- 
come  great,  but  in  no  case  has  the  English  nobility  produced  great 
men  from  the  eldest  of  the  eldest  when  that  means  successive  repro- 
ductions at  25  years  or  less.  In  every  case  in  which  the  nobility  has 
produced  a  great  man,  or  a  man  of  more  than  ordinary  ability,  such 
production  has  been  either  an  exceptional  case  of  late  reproduction 
or  a  break  in  the  line  of  succession  that  brings  in  a  collateral  and 
younger  branch.  This  is  not  because  of  any  lack  of  early  reproduc- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  nobility.  A  glance  at  "Burke's  Peerages" 
will  show  that  there  is  a  plentiful  supply.  While  I  have  not  tabu- 
lated these  men  I  have  satisfied  myself  that  a  large  part,  if  not  the 
majority,  of  these  eldest  sons  are  born  before  the  fathers  are  30.  I 
observed  quite  a  number  of  cases  in  which  the  father  was  less  than 
25,  and  some  in  which  he  was  less  than  20.  If,  after  all  of  the  cen- 
turies during  which  the  law  of  primogeniture1  has  held  sway,  and 
all  of  the  advantages  accruing  to  the  men  benefited  by  it,  the 
English  nobility  cannot  produce  a  great  man  except  in  the  rare  in- 

(i)  Primogeniture  was  recognized  by  the  Hebrews,  the  Greeks  and  the 
Romans.  In  France  it  first  appeared  when  the  Capets  came  to  the  throne,  but 
was  abolished  in  1789.  In  England  it  was  first  established  at  the  time  of  the 
Norman  conquest. 


SEBASTIAN1  BACH  [40] 


CALIFORNIA  INDIAN 


EMINENT  FAMILIES.  193 

stances  in  which  their  system  fails  to  operate,  where  are  we  to  look 
for  the  advantages  of  early  reproduction?  Perhaps  we  may  look 
for  it  in  the  compensation  that  gives  the  material  advantages  to  that 
member  of  the  family  least  able  to  contend  with  the  adversities  of 
life.  The  trouble  with  primogeniture  is,  however,  that  the  compen- 
sation is  disproportionate  to  the  mental  differences.  In  any  given 
family  that  does  not  extend  from  very  early  to  very  late  reproduc- 
tion, there  is  usually  very  little,  and  often  no  recognizable,  differ- 
ence between  the  eldest  and  the  youngest.  Except  in  cases  of 
extreme  difference  it  is  only  through  successive  generations  that 
great  results  are  reached.  A  single  case  of  comparatively  early 
reproduction  does  not  eliminate  the  accumulation  of  several  genera- 
tions on  both  sides  of  the  house,  as  we  see  in  Alexander,  Moham- 
med, Swift,  Lincoln  and  Gray.  Neither  is  a  very  great  man 
produced  in  a  single  generation,  but  it  requires  two  or  three  genera- 
tions and  more  than  a  century  of  time. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

RACES  OF  MEN. 

Galton,  in  his  "Hereditary  Genius,"  earnestly  advocates  early 
marriages  as  a  means  of  rapidly  multiplying  the  better  class  of  the 
population,  and  thus  raising  the  general  standard  of  mental  ability. 
He  also  advocates  it  on  the  theory  that  an  early  age  of  reproduction 
causes  more  generations  to  be  alive  at  the  same  time,  and  gives  more 
chances  for  "advantageous  variations.''  Along  with  this  he  gives 
elaborate  calculations  showing  mathematically  the  advantages  of 
following  this  system.  Also  along  with  this  plea  for  early  repro- 
duction and  the  mathematical  demonstration  of  its  desirability,  he 
gives  a  table  of  eminent  men  and  the  family  rank  in  which  they 
were  born  in  comparison  to  their  brothers. 

GALTON'S  TABLE  OF  RELATIVE  BIRTHS  OF  EMINENT  MEN. 

Only  sons 1 1  per  cent. 

Eldest  sons 17  per  cent. 

Second  sons 38  per  cent. 

Third  sons 22  per  cent. 

Later  sons 12  per  cent. 

This  table  shows  that  17  per  cent  of  his  eminent  men  (judges  in 
this  case)  were  eldest  sons,  38  per  cent  were  second  sons,  and  22 
per  cent  were  third  sons.  It  may  be  considered  as  axiomatic  that 
the  number  of  second  sons  born  does  not  exceed  the  number  of 
eldest  sons,  and  also  that  the  fathers  are  older  when  second  sons 
are  born  than  when  first  sons  are  born.  Where  "eldest  son"  means 
elder  of  two  sons  as  well  as  eldest  of  a  number  of  sons,  as  it  does 

194 


RACES     OF     MEN.  195 

in  this  case,  it  is  equally  axiomatic  that  the  number  of  eldest  sons 
exceeds  the  number  of  third  sons.  Yet  Galton  does  not  perceive 
the  inconsistency  of  advocating  early  reproduction  and  giving  a 
table,  compiled  by  himself,  showing  that  eminent  men  are  drawn 
in  a  much  larger  measure  from  late  than  from  early  reproduction. 

AGE  AT  MARRIAGE. 

The  same  plea  for  early  reproduction  as  giving  more  oppor- 
tunities for  advantageous  variation  is  made  by  Haycraft  in  his 
"Darwinism  and  Race  Progress."  Along  with  this  plea  he  gives 
a  table  showing  the  average  ages  at  time  of  marriage  of  different 
classes  of  people.  This  table  is  made  up  from  the  Forty-ninth 
Report  of  Births,  Deaths  and  Marriages  in  England  for  1884-5, 
and  is  as  follows : 

AVERAGE  AGES   AT  MARRIAGES    (ENGLAND,    1884-5). 

OCCUPATION.  BACHELORS.  SPINSTERS. 

Miners 24.06  22.46 

Artisans 25.35  23.70 

Shop  Keepers 26.67  24.22 

Professional  Classes 31 .22  26.40 

This  table  shows  a  direct  jprojDortion  between  the  intelligence  of 
the  classes  and  the  ages  at  which  they  marry,  yet,  knowing  that 
great  men  come  principally  from  the  educated  classes,  the  man  who 
gives  this  table  takes  a  gloomy  view  of  the  matter  and  urges  the 
professional  and  independent  classes  to  compete  with  English 
miners  in  age  of  marriage. 

Galton  and  Haycraft  are  not  alone  in  advocating  early  repro- 
duction as  a  means  for  improving  the  race.  The  same  thing  may 
be  found  repeated  again  and  again,  either  by  direct  advocacy  or  by 


196  RACES     OF     MEN. 

implication,  in  the  majority  of  the  works  on  heredity,  and  the  same 
inconsistency  between  advocacy  and  facts  may  often  be  found 
between  the  same  covers. 

OPPORTUNITIES  FOR  ADVANTAGEOUS  VARIATIONS. 

Advantageous  variations  occur  in  all  parts  of  the  world  and 
among  all  races  of  men  and  animals.  If  it  be  true  that  early  repro- 
duction offers  more  opportunities  for  such  advantageous  variations, 
then  we  should  look  for  such  variations,  and  consequently  the 
greatest  men,  because  selection  preserves  advantageous  variations, 
among  those  races  of  people  who  furnish  the  greatest  number  of 
such  "opportunities."  These  people  are  the  Digger  Indians,  the 
Fuegians,  the  Andamanese,  the  Bushmen,  and  some  other  of  the 
degenerate  and  degenerating  races.  That  I  might  be  accurate  in 
this  matter  I  have  carefully  looked  up  the  marriage  customs  of 
various  races,  as  far  as  they  relate  to  the  age  of  reproduction,  and 
will  give  examples  of  them  in  detail  to  make  it  clear  what  relation- 
ship they  bear  to  each  other. 

THE  ESKIMOS. 

Though  the  Eskimo  has  a  rude  sort  of  intelligence  from  the 
savage  standpoint,  he  is  wholly  illiterate  and  capable  of  only  a  very 
limited  education.  Extreme  cold,  like  extreme  heat,  is  said  to  cause 
early  maturity,  and  boys  and  girls  marry  as  soon  as  the  husband 
is  able  to  support  a  family.  As  hunting  seals  is  the  principal  occu- 
pation, this  usually  occurs  when  the  boy  is  about  15  or  16.  The 
mothers  nurse  their  children  until  about  four  years  of  age.  Thus, 
while  reproduction  begins  at  a  very  early  age,  three  or  four  children 
would  carry  the  parents  to  a  period  between  25  and  30.  Th.e  aver- 
age age  at  reproduction  is  therefore  some  time  between  20  and  25, 
probably  about  23  or  24. 


RACES     OF     MEN.  197 

THE  DIGGER  INDIANS. 

The  Digger  Indians  of  California  are  said  to  be  the  most 
degraded  of  all  American  races.  They  are  not  particular  about 
their  diet.  If  game  or  fish  are  not  easily  obtained,  roots,  or 
worms,  or  anything  will  do.  Before  the  Spaniards  came  to  America 
these  Indians  had  no  domestic  animals,  and  have  none  now  except 
a  miserable  breed  of  dogs.  The  girls  usually  marry  at  13  or  14, 
though  often  as  early  as  12.  They  soon  cease  to  have  children, 
and  rarely  have  more  than  five.  The  average  age  for  reproduction 
is,  therefore,  about  19  for  the  women  and  20  to  22  for  the  men. 

THE  FUEGIANS. 

The  Fuegians  are  the  most  miserable  and  degraded  race  in  South 
America,  and  are  comparable  only  to  the  Digger  Indians  of  North 
America.  They  live  in  the  rudest  manner,  wear  almost  no  clothing, 
and  subsist  by  hunting  and  fishing.  "As  soon  as  a  youth  is  able  to 
maintain  a  wife  by  fishing  or  bird-catching,  and  has  built  or  stolen 
a  canoe,  he  captures  and  carries  off  a  bride."  As  these  simple  things 
are  what  he  is  taught  from  earliest  infancy,  and  as  there  are  no 
restraints  on  his  reproductive  propensities,  he  must  begin  pretty 
early,  and  the  average  age  of  reproduction  is  probably  the  same  as 
with  the  Digger  Indians. 

THE  PATAGONIANS. 

In  strong  contrast  with  the  Fuegians  are  the  Patagonians,  a 
race  of  people  who  are  their  close  neighbors  and  near  relatives,  if 
we  are  to  believe  what  ethnology  tells  us.  The  Patagonians  are 
ranked  as  a  high  race  of  Indians,  being  intelligent,  skillful  and 
athletic.  Marriage  by  force  is  unknown.  The  consent  of  the  danisd 


198  RACES     OF     MEN. 

must  be  secured,  and  presents  are  exchanged  between  the  groom  and 
the  bride's  father.  All  this  takes  a  certain  amount  of  time,  and 
must  delay  the  date  of  marriage  to  an  age  two  or  three  years  later 
than  with  the  Fuegians.  The  women  are  chaste,  and  as  a  conse- 
quence are  able  to  produce  children  a  good  many  more  years  than 
is  possible  with  those  that  lack  chastity.  The  fact  that  these  two 
races,  closely  related  to  each  other,  should  differ  so  remarkably  in 
intelligence  calls  for  some  explanation.  This  explanation  is  fur- 
nished by  the  theory  of  use-inheritance  in  the  difference  between 
the  ages  at  which  they  reproduce,  and  consequently  the  difference 
in  the  amount  of  time  which  the  parents  have  to  use  and  develop 
their  mental  powers  before  their  children  are  born. 

THE  ANDAMAN   ISLANDERS. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  Andaman  Islands  are  perhaps  the  lowest 
of  all  human  beings.  Living  under  a  tropical  sun,  they  arrive  at 
maturity  at  a  very  early  age.  Their  principal  clothing  is  said  to  be 
a  coat  of  clay  to  protect  the  skin  from  insects.  They  have  no  laws, 
religion,  or  village  government.  Marriage  custom  or  morality 
there  is  none.  They  live  together  in  communities  of  from  fifty  to 
eighty,  and  each  woman  is  the  common  property  of  any  man  who 
may  want  her.  With  no  marriages,  no  contests  for  exclusive  pos- 
session, and  no  sense  of  virtue,  reproduction  naturally  begins  at 
the  first  physical  opportunity.  Flower  calls  them  an  "infantile" 
negro  type1.  They  have  names  for  only  "one"  and  "two,"  though 
with  the  aid  of  their  fingers  they  can  count  to  ten.  Since  the 
British  occupation  they  are  dying  out,  and  their  place  is  being  taken 
by  a  mixed  breed.  Here  we  have  in  the  early  reproduction  of  the 

(i)     Jour.  Anthrop.  Inst,  1870,  pp.  132-133. 


RACES     OF     MEN.  1 99 

Andamanese  all  of  the  asked-for  elements  to  produce  rapid  multi- 
plication and  advantageous  variation  that  must  necessarily  be  pre- 
served by  selection,  yet  these  people  are  disappearing  before  the 
advance  of  the  slowly  reproducing  Englishmen. 

THE   BUSHMEN. 

The  Bushmen  are  classed  by  ethnologists  as  a  degenerate 
branch  of  the  Hottentots,  and  are  said  to  be  to  South  Africa  what 
the  Digger  Indians  are  to  North  America.  Their  food  is  anything 
that  comes  handy — worms,  snakes,  and  roots  being  as  acceptable  as 
anything  else.  The  men  are  not  over  five  feet  high.  The  women 
soon  get  wrinkled  and  excessively  ugly,  30  or  younger  being  the 
extreme  limit  of  fair  looks.  The  marriage  relationship  depends 
upon  the  will  of  the  husband,  and  lasts  as  long  as  it  suits  his  fancy. 
There  is  said  to  be  no  word  in  their  language  to  express  the  dis- 
tinction between  married  and  unmarried  women.  All  this  tells  the 
story  of  early  reproduction  and  degeneracy. 

THE   HOTTENTOTS. 

The  Hottentots,  though  a  low  race,  are  relatively  superior  to 
their  cousins,  the  Bushmen.  The  morality  of  the  Hottentots  is  said 
to  be  fairly  good.  They  have  no  marriage  ceremony, — the  husband 
simply  purchasing  a  wife  and  taking  her  home.  The  necessity  of 
making  a  purchase  implies  that  the  would-be-husband  must  accu- 
mulate some  property  before  he  can  secure  a  wife,  a  circumstance 
that  requires  more  time  than  is  the  case  where  the  man  simply  helps 
himself  without  stopping  to  furnish  a  quid  pro  quo. 

With  the  exception  of  the  Patagonians  and  the  Hottentots, 
which  are  inserted  because  of  their  relationship  and  by  way  of  con- 
trast, these  races  are  the  lowest  of  the  low  and  are  dispersed  over 


2OO  RACES     OF     MEN. 

all  parts  of  the  world.  In  each  case  we  either  know  that  repro- 
duction begins  at  about  the  age  of  12,  or  that  the  circum- 
stances are  such  that  it  begins  at  the  earliest  age  nature  will  permit. 
With  these  races  might  also  be  classed  the  Negritos  of  the  Philippine 
Islands  and  the  Indians  of  Central  America,  and  those  scattered 
along  the  Amazon  and  Oronoco.  In  all  of  these  the  act  of  repro- 
duction begins  at  a  very  early  age. 

THE  AUSTRALIANS. 

The  Australians,  though  a  low  race,  are  said  to  be  "far  above 
the  Fuegians."  Their  method  of  securing  a  wife  is  to  find  some 
female  unprotected,  knock  her  senseless  with  a  club,  and  then,  seiz- 
ing her  by  a  leg,  arm  or  the  hair,  drag  her  home  through  the  woods. 
To  carry  her  would  be  too  much  consideration.  An  Australian 
thinks  nothing  of  cutting,  slashing  or  killing  his  wife  for  the  most 
trivial  affair.  As  a  result  it  is  rare  to  see  a  woman  who  is  not 
covered  with  scars,  and  they  usually  live  only  a  few  years.  The 
women  are  less  numerous  than  the  men,  and  are  eagerly  sought 
after.  As  it  requires  considerable  prowess  to  secure  a  wife  in  this 
way,  and  as  older  men  would  have  an  advantage  over  youths,  repro- 
duction by  the  men  is  carried  to  a  much  later  age  than  by  the  women. 
Just  what,  it  would  be  difficult  to  estimate,  but  it  must  certainly  be 
much  later  than  with  the  races  previously  mentioned.  Hartwig, 
speaking  of  the  Australians,  says  :2  "The  old  men  manage  to  keep 
the  females  a  good  deal  among  themselves,  giving  their  daughters 
to  one  another,"  and  Broca  says3  that  Australian  women  rarely 
conceive  after  the  thirtieth  year,  an  age  which  is  the  mid-position 
of  our  standard. 


(2)  Wild  Animals  of  the  Tropics,  p.  109. 

(3)  Phenomena  of  Hybridity,  p.  58. 


RACES     OF     MEN.  2OI 

In  the  Australians  we  have  all  of  the  immorality  of  the  Bush- 
men or  the  Fuegians,  and  much  more  of  actual  savagery,  yet  they 
are  much  more  intelligent  and  have  much  heavier  brains.  There  is 
between  their  superior  intelligence  and  their  social  customs  no  con- 
ceivable relationship  except  the  circumstances  that  bring  about  a 
later  age  of  reproduction  on  the  part  of  the  father.  Selection,  if 
it  acts  at  all,  acts  only  to  select  those  men  who  have  had  more  years 
in  which  to  use  their  brains,  and  not  those  which  are  simply  advan- 
tageous variations. 

AFRICAN  TRIBES. 

The  M'pongwes  are  an  ignorant,  lazy  and  generally  good-for- 
nothing  tribe  located  on  the  Gaboon  river,  near  the  equator  in  West 
Africa.  "Girls  are  frequently  married  at  ten,  mothers  at  fourteen 
and  old  women  at  twenty."  A  few  hundred  miles  north  of  the 
Gaboon  is  Bornu,  a  large  and  semi-civilized  kingdom  on  the  west- 
ern side  of  Lake  Tchad.  In  Bornu,  marriage  is  later  than  elsewhere 
in  Africa,  and  usually  occurs  when  the  girl  is  15  or  16. 

SOUTH  AMERICAN  TRIBES. 

In  the  northern  part  of  South  America  the  Indian  tribes  are 
little  better  than  the  Diggers.  They  are  degenerating  and  gradu- 
ally dying  out.  Chastity  is  unknown  and  reproduction  begins  at 
about  the  earliest  possible  age.  "With  the  Moxos  and  the  Chiquitos, 
premature  marriages  were  such  a  settled  order  of  things  that  there 
were  no  celebates  above  the  age  of  fourteen  for  the  men  and  twelve 
for  the  women.  The  Jesuit  missionaries  in  South  America  had 
completely  adopted  the  native  custom,  and  they  often  married  young 
girls  and  boys  of  ten  and  twelve  years."4  One  tribe,  however,  the 
Acawoios,  is  superior  to  its  neighbors.  They  practice  agriculture, 
(4)  Letourneau,  The  Evolution  of  Marriage,  p.  107. 


Or 


202  RACES     OF     MEN. 

tame  wild  animals  and  keep  many  pets.  They  are  skilled  canoeists 
and  are  the  best  makers  of  the  ourali  poison  and  the  blow  pipe. 
Early  marriages  are  forbidden  and  the  women  are  virtuous. 

THE  POLYNESIANS. 

The  Polynesians  inhabit  the  numerous  small  islands  of  the 
Pacific.  They  are  said  to  be  mentally  superior  to  any  of  the  races 
so  far  mentioned.  Living  under  a  tropical  sun,  they  mature  at  a 
very  early  age.  Chastity  not  being  one  of  their  virtues,  reproduc- 
tion begins  as  soon  as  Nature  permits.5  Right  at  this  point  comes 
in  a  peculiarity  that  distinguishes  the  Polynesians  from  all  other 
races.  They  practice  infanticide,  or  at  least  have  practiced  it  in  the 
past,  and  the  manner  in  which  they  practiced  it  was  to  kill  the  first 
three  children  born.  Sometimes  more  would  be  killed  up  to  eight 
or  ten,  but  the  first  three  seems  to  have  been  the  general  standard 
of  practice.  The  result  of  this  simply  amounts  to  a  postponement, 
of  from  three  to  ten  years,  of  the  time  of  actual  reproduction.  Here 
we  have  a  race  of  people  living  under  the  same  external  conditions 
as  the  inhabitants  of  the  Andaman  Islands,  equally  if  not  more 
licentious  in  their  practices,  and  commencing  reproduction  at  an 
equally  early  age,  but  differentiating  themselves  by  killing  off  all 
of  the  early  product  and  retaining  only  the  later.  If  it  be  said  that 
the  licentiousness  and  early  reproduction  of  the  Andamanese  is 
due  to  their  low  intelligence  and  not  the  low  intelligence  of  these 
practices,  then  what  is  the  explanation  of  the  vastly  higher  intelli- 
gence of  the  Polynesians  who  indulge  in  the  same  practices? 

(5)  Ratzel,  in  his  History  of  Mankind,  page  277  of  the  translation  of 
Butler,  says  that  if  a  Polynesian  girl  of  ten  or  twelve  has  not  found  a  husband 
she  becomes  the  paramour  of  a  man  who  keeps  her  until  she  can  find  some  one 
to  marry  her.  Letourneau,  in  his  Evolution  of  Marriage,  quotes  the  surgeon 
Roblet  as  saying  that  French  sailors,  when  in  Tahiti,  were  frequently  offered 
girls  of  eight  years,  "and,"  he  adds,  "they  were  not  virgins." 


RACES     OF     MEN.  203 

ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  EGYPTIANS. 

Rameses  II,  the  greatest  of  the  known  pharaohs,  was  the  son 
of  Seti  I  when  he  was  a  comparatively  old  man.  How  old  I  have 
not  found  out,  but  circumstances  would  indicate  that  Seti  I  was 
about  50  when  his  son  was  born.  Ptolemy  II,  previously  men- 
tioned, was  also;  the  son  of  an  old  man.  From  the  fact  that  the 
Greeks  and  Romans  reproduced  late  in  life  and  were  more  or  less 
associated  with  the  Egyptians,  we  may  safely  assume  that  the  ancient 
civilization  of  Egypt  was  also  characterized  by  late  reproduction. 
The  present  practice  is  far  from  being  of  that  character.  Marriage 
among  the  fellahs  is  a  private  affair  and  not  a  public  ceremony. 
The  men  marry  mere  children,  who  are  very  rapidly  worn  out. 
When  tired  of  his  wife,  the  husband  sends  her  home  without  for- 
mality. The  Egyptians  are  known  to  be  a  race  that  is  degenerating 
from  a  higher  plane,  and  we  can  see  the  cause  of  it  in  the  early  age 

of  reproduction. 

INDIA. 

The  same  thing'  may  be  said  of  the  people  of  India,  the 
early  marriages  of  which  are  notorious.  Not  all  Hindus  marry 
early,  and  as  the  men  retain  health  for  many  years,  there  are  some 
births  at  comparatively  late  age.  The  aboriginal  tribes  of  India 
(those  which  inhabited  the  land  before  the  arrival  of  the  Hindus) 
are  a  much  lower  class.  Chastity  is  generally  not  a  part  of  their 
morality.  Among  the  aboriginal  Warali,  boys  marry  at  16  or  17 
and  girls  at  12  or  13. 

NORTHERN    AFRICA. 

The  Touaregs  of  the  Sahara  and  the  Kabyles  of  Algeria  are 
neighbors.  Among  the  Touaregs  the  women  know  how  to  read 
and  write,  and  it  is  to  them  that  we  owe  the  preservation  of  the 


2O4  RACES     OF     MEN. 

Lybian  and  the  ancient  Berber  writing.  They  seldom  marry  before 
the  age  of  20.  The  Kabyles  are  very  much  inferior  in  every 
respect,  and  it  is  their  practice  to  marry  their  girls  at  the  ages 
of  8  to  12. 

EAST  AFRICA. 

"The  Masai  of  East  Africa  are  a  proud  race,  with  strict  laws 
and  aristocratic  organization,  and  they  guard  the  purity  of  their 
maidens  with  jealousy ;  their  neighbors,  the  Wakamba,  are  a  scat- 
tered and  subject-race,  which  is  indifferent  to  the  morality  of  their 
girls,  who  stroll  about  without  a  rag  on." 

CENTRAL  ASIA. 

The  Afghans  marry  at  18  to  20  for  men  and  16  to  18  for 
women.  In  Kafirstan  the  men  marry  between  20  and  30  and  the 
women  from  1 6  to  17.  In  Thibet  the  ages  are  20  to  21  for  men  and 
15  to  20  for  women. 

THE  CHINESE. 

The  Chinese  encourage  early  marriages,  and  it  is  said  that  a 
bachelor  of  20  is  an  object  of  contempt.  We  have  previously  found 
that  Confucius  was  the  son  of  a  very  old  man,  but  the  descendants 
of  Confucius  have  been  more  rapid  in  their  generations.  There 
have  been  more  than  80  of  them  since  his  time,  which  would  make 
the  average  period  between  generations  about  28  to  30  years. 
Heredity,  as  ordinarily  interpreted,  would  say  that  the  descendants 
of  such  a  great  man  should  also  be  great  men,  but  we  can  see  in  the 
rapidity  of  their  generations  the  reason  why  they  are  not. 

REVIEW  OF  THE  RACES. 

In  general  it  may  be  said  that  wherever  th,ere  are  no  restraints 


RACES     OF     MEN.  205 

upon  the  sexual  propensities,  as  with  the  Digger  Indians,  the 
Fuegians,  the  Andamanese,  the  Wauraus  of  the  Guianas,  the  Bush- 
men, and  the  tribes  along  the  Gabbon  river,  there  we  find  reproduc- 
tion taking  place  at  the  earliest  possible  age,  and  the  lowest  grade  of 
intelligence.  Where  we  find  some  special  circumstances  or  customs 
that  delay  the  age  at  which  reproduction  takes  place,  as  with  the 
Patagonians,  the  North  American  Indians,  and  the  Polynesians, 
there  we  find  a  considerably  higher  grade  of  intelligence.  Where 
we  find  the  custom  of  marrying  late  in  life,  as  was  customary  with 
the  Greeks  and  the  Romans,  there  we  find  a  very  high  grade  of  in- 
telligence. And  where  we  find  a  fortuitous  succession  of  very  late 
births,  there  we  find  the  very  great  men  of  the  world's  history. 
In  other  words,  the  longer  the  time  in  which  the  individuals  have 
in  which  to  use,  develop  and  strengthen  their  brains  before  repro- 
duction begins,  the  greater  and  more  powerful  are  the  brains  of 
their  descendants.  By  referring  to  page  51  it  will  be  seen  that  this 
is  but  a  slightly  different  statement  of  the  laws  as  formulated  by 
Lamarck  nearly  a  hundred  years  ago. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

DEGENERACY. 

Degeneracy  is  a  term  used  to  express  a  tendency  toward  a  de- 
velopment less  perfect  or  less  advanced  than  that  which  is  normal 
or  healthy.  Among  the  lower  animals  it  is  usually  used  to  designate 
certain  forms  of  parasitism  in  which  a  previously  active  animal  at- 
taches itself  to  a  "host"  and  then  degenerates  into  an  animal  capable 
of  existing  only  as  a  parasite.  In  man  the  word  degeneracy  is 
used  to  express  any  retrograde  condition,  such  as  a  deformity,  or 
any  congenital  weakness  of  body  or  mind.  Thus,  idiots,  insane  and 
weak  minded  persons,  epileptics,  and  the  criminal  and  pauper  classes 
are  designated  as  degenerates. 

In  some  experimental  studies  into  the  causes  of  degeneracy,1 
which  were  continued  for  a  period  of  five  years,  Charin  and  Cley 
innoculated  rabbits  with  the  bacillus  of  blue  pus  and  its  toxins.  The 
results  were  not  uniform,  but  the  most  frequent  results  were  steril- 
ity, abortion,  or  immediate  death  of  the  progeny.  Occasionally 
the  offspring  survived,  and  in  rare  instances  they  were  healthy. 
Two  rabbits  were  born  of  a  couple  of  which  the  male  alone  was 
innoculated  with  a  sterilized  culture.  Five  rabbits  were  born  of 
these  two,  of  which  two  were  normal,  a  third  was  deformed  and 
died  in  a  few  days.  In  the  remaining  two  the  ears  were  mere 
fragments  and  one  leg  of  each  was  much  shorter  than  the  other,  and 
ended  in  a  stump  without  foot  or  toes.  In  other  cases  the  bones 
were  shortened  and  provided  with  enormous  ends. 


(i)     Transactions  de  1'Institute  Pasteur,  1896. 

206 


DEGENERACY.  2O/ 

TRANSMISSION    OF   ACQUIRED   DISEASES. 

This  shows  that  hereditary  degeneracy  may  arise  in  rabbits,, 
from  disease  acquired  by  ancestors,  and  that  the  degeneracy  may 
take  any  one  of  a  variety  of  forms.  The  same  results  occur  with 
man  when  the  parent  acquires  disease  or  suffers  from  accidents. 
Talbot  gives2  a  large  number  of  cases  of  degeneracy  occurring 
among  children  born  after  the  parents  had  become  inebriates,  four 
after  the  father  had  been  sunstruck,  two  where  the  mother  had  suf- 
fered front  a  railroad  accident,  two  cases  where  parental  nervous 
exhaustion  came  from  typhoid  and  typhus  fevers,  and  two  others 
from  nerve  exhaustion.  He  also  quotes3  a  case  reported  by  Kiernan 
in  which  father  and  mother  (both  of  healthy  stock)  were  overcome 
by  sunstroke  which  resulted  in  changing  the  characters  of  both. 
The  children  born  before  the  sunstroke  were  healthy,  but  a  year 
subsequently  the  woman  had  triplets,  one  of  which  died  from  con- 
vulsions soon  after  birth.  The  second,  a  girl,  became  an  epileptic 
at  the  age  of  two,  a  prostitute  at  16,  and  chronically  insane  at  20. 
The  third  triplet  became  a  puberty  lunatic  at  16.  Of  three  other 
children  subsequently  born,  two  became  epileptic  and  one  a  moral 
imbecile. 

HEALTHY  AND  UNHEALTHY  DEVELOPMENT. 

A  deduction  from  the  theory  of  use-inheritance,  especially  in 
view  of  what  has  been  shown  in  regard  to  mental  aptitudes,  is  that 
degeneracy  as  well  as  intellectual  strength  should  appear  most  com- 
monly in  the  children  of  old  parents.  But  this  fact  does  not  give 
any  warrant,  as  has  been  assumed  by  several  writers  on  heredity,  for 
linking  great  mental  ability  with  degeneracy  as  kindred  abnormali- 
ties, because  one  is  the  result  of  healthy  development  and  the  other 

(2)  Degeneracy,  p.  106. 

(3)  Degeneracy,  p.  139. 


2O8  DEGENERACY. 

is  the  result  of  unhealthy  development.  We  have  plenty  of  in- 
stances in  which  degenerate  children  have  come  from  feeble,  ex- 
hausted or  nervous  parents,  but  we  have  no  such  instances  in  cases 
where  the  parents,  grand-parents  and  great-grand-parents  have  all 
retained  full  health  and  vigor  during  the  entire  reproductive  period. 
The  cases  given  substantiate  this  deduction,  and  innumerable  other 
cases  of  the  same  character  might  be  added.  One  will  be  sufficient 
as  it  differs  from  the  others  in  that  it  shows  the  effect  of  age  with- 
out any  accompanying  evidence  of  injury  or  sickness.  %  " 

Talbot  states4  that  Kiernan  has  had  under  observation  the  case 
of  a  Nova  Scotian  mother  of  Scotch  extraction  who  bore  children 
till  the  age  of  63.  The  children  born  before  the  age  of  50  were  all 
normal  and  lived  to  an  average  age  of  60.  There  was  no  birth  be- 
tween the  ages  of  50  and  56,  but  at  the  latter  age  a  son  was  pro- 
duced who  had  ear,  jaw  and  skull  stigmata,  and  who  became  a 
periodical  lunatic  at  25.  A  year  later  was  born  a  son  who  was  a 
six-fingered  idiot.  The  next  three  children  became  paralytic  idiots 
in  infancy.  The  next  was  a  periodically  sexual  invert  female.  The 
last  child  was  an  epileptic. 

These  last  cases  of  degeneracy  show  the  results  arising  from 
the  physical  decay  of  old  age  and  are  precisely  what  the  law  of  use- 
inheritance  would  call  for.  There  are,  however,  certain  cases  of 
degenerate  families  which  require  additional  explanation  and,  for 
this  purpose,  I  cannot  do  better  than  to  commence  with  the  fol- 
lowing example: — 

THE  "ISHMAELS"  OF  INDIANAPOLIS. 

Oscar  C.  McCullock,  speaking  of  the  descendants  of  a  pauper 
family  named  "Ishmael,"  in  the  city  of  Indianapolis  used  the  follow- 
ing language: 

(4)     Degeneracy,  p.  91. 


DEGENERACY.  2CX) 

"We  start  at  some  unknown  date  with  30  families.  These  came 
mostly  from  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and  North  Carolina.  Of  the 
first  generation — of  62  individuals — we  know  certainly  of  only 
three.  In  the  second  generation  we  have  the  history  of  84.  In  the 
third  generation  we  have  the  history  of  283.  In  the  fourth  genera- 
tion— 1840-1860 — we  have  the  history  of  644.  In  the  fifth  gen- 
eration— 18601880 — we  have  the  history  of  179.  In  the  sixth 
generation — 1880-1890 — we  have  the  history  of  57.  Here  is  a  total 
of  1,750  individuals.  Before  the  fourth  generation — from  1840  to 
1860 — we  have  but  scant  records.  Our  most  complete  data  begin 
with  the  fourth  generation,  and  the  following  are  valuable.  We 
know  of  121  prostitutes.  The  criminal  record  is  very  large — petty 
thieving,  larcenies  chiefly.  There  have  been  a  number  of  murders. 
The  first  murder  committed  in  this  city  was  in  this  family.  A  long 
and  celebrated  murder  case,  known  as  the  "Clem"  murder,  costing 
the  state  immense  amounts  of  money,  is  located  here.  Between 
1868  and  1888  not  less  than  $5,000  has  been  paid  for  'passing' 
these  people  from  place  to  place,  each  township  officer  trying  to 
throw  off  the  responsibility.  The  records  of  the  city  hospital  show 
that — taking  out  surgical  cases,  acute  general  cases,  and  cases  out- 
side the  city — seventy-five  per  cent  of  the  cases  treated  are  from 
this  class.  The  number  of  illegitimacies  is  very  great.  The  Board 
of  Health  reports  that  the  number  of  stillborn  children  found  in 
sinks,  etc.,  would  not  be  less  than  six  per  week.  Deaths  are  fre- 
quent and  chiefly  among  children.  The  suffering  of  the  children 
must  be  great.  The  people  have  no  occupation.  They  gather  swill 
or  ashes;  the  women  beg,  and  send  the  children  around  to  beg; 
they  make  their  eyes  sore  with  vitriol.  In  my  own  experience  I 
have  seen  three  generations  of  beggars  among  them.  I  have  not 
time  here  to  go  into  details,  some  loathsome,  all  pitiable.  One 


210  DEGENERACY. 

evening  I  was  called  to  marry  a  couple.  I  found  them  in  a  small 
room  with  two  beds.  In  all  eleven  people  lived  in  it.  The  bride 
was  dressing,  the  groom  washing.  Another  member  of  the  family 
filled  a  coal-oil  lamp  while  burning.  The  groom  offered  to  haul 
ashes  for  the  fee.  I  made  a  present  to  the  bride.  Soon  after  I 
asked  one  of  the  family  how  they  were  getting  along.  'Oh,  Elisha 
don't  live  with  her  any  more.'  'Why?'  'Her  husband  came  back 
and  she  went  to  him.  That  made  Elisha  mad,  and  he  left 
her/  *  *  *  * 

M'CULLOCK'S  DEDUCTIONS. 

"A  few  deductions  from  these  data  are  offered  for  your  consid- 
eration. First,  this  is  a  study  into  social  degeneracy,  or  degrada- 
tion, which  is  similar  to  that  sketched  by  Mr.  Lankester.  As  in  the 
lower  orders,  so  in  society,  we  have  parasitism,  or  social  degrada- 
tion. There  is  reason  to  believe  that  some  of  this  comes  from  old 
convict  stock  which  England  threw  into  this  country  in  the  seven- 
teenth century.  We  find  the  wandering  tendency  so  marked  in  the 
case  of  'Cracker'  and  the  'Pike'  here.  'Movin'  on.'  There  is  scarcely 
a  day  that  the  wagons  are  not  to  be  seen  on  our  streets ;  cur  dogs ; 
tow-headed  children.  They  camp  outside  the  city  and  then  beg. 
Two  families  as  I  write  have  come  by,  moving  from  north  to  south 
and  from  east  to  west  'hunting  work,'  and  yet  we  can  give  work  to 
a  thousand  men  on  our  gas  trenches. 

"Next,  note  the  general  unchastity  that  characterizes  this  class. 
The  prostitutions  and  illegitimacies  are  large;  the  tendency  shows 
itself  in  incests  and  relations  lower  than  the  animals  go.  This  is 
due  to  the  deprivation  of  Nature,  to  crowded  conditions,  to  absence 
of  decencies  and  cleanliness.  It  is  an  animal  reversion  which  can 
be  paralleled  in  lower  animals.  The  physical  depravity  is  followed 


DEGENERACY.  211 

by  physical  weakness.  Out  of  this  come  the  frequent  deaths,  the 
stillborn  children,  and  the  general  incapacity  to  endure  hard  work, 
or  bad  climate.  They  cannot  work  hard,  and  break  down  early. 
They  then  appear  in  the  county  asylum,  the  city  hospital,  and  the 
township  trustee's  office. 

"Third,  note  the  force  of  heredity.  Each  child  tends  to  the  same 
life,  reverts  when  taken  out."5 

RAPID    REPRODUCTION    OF    CRIMINALS   AND   PAUPERS. 

In  1820  Indianapolis  had  only  fifteen  families,  so  these 
thirty  families  must  have  come  at  some  later  date.  From  1820  to 
1890  is  only  70  years,  yet  at  the  latter  date  there  is  the  criminal 
or  pauper  history  of  57  persons  in  the  sixth  generation.  Mr.  Mc- 
Cullock  says  he  has  personally  known  three  generations  of  beggars 
among  them,  and  his  details  give  less  than  20  years  to  a  genera- 
tion. This  is  early  reproduction  accompanied  by  low  mentality, 
vice  and  pauperism,  and  is  in  marked  contrast  with  the  case  of 
Franklin  in  which  there  was  robust  health,  great  mental  power  and 
a  period  of  108  years  from  the  birth  of  Franklin  back  to  the  birth 
of  his  grandfather. 

THE  " JUKES." 

Another  and  more  famous  family  of  criminals  and  paupers  is 
given  by  Dugdale.6  In  this  case  the  first  generation  is  not  definitely 
located,  but  the  second  generation  consists  of  five  sisters  who  were 
born  some  time  before  1770.  Within  a  little  more  than  100  years 
from  this  time  there  had  been  registered  540  criminal  and  pauper 
descendants  from  these  sisters,  and  the  total  number  of  their  de- 
scendants was  estimated  at  about  1,200.  The  first  birth  in  the  third 


(5)  Quoted  by  Jordan :     Foot-Notes  to  Evolution,  p.  304. 

(6)  The  Jukes. 


212  DEGENERACY. 

generation  was  in  1784  and  was  the  illegitimate  son  of  "Margaret, 
the  mother  of  criminals."  This  son  (Gen.  3)  had,  when  at  the  age 
of  15,  a  son  (Gen.  4),  who,  between  the  ages  of  24  and  51,  had 
nine  children  ( Gen.  5 )  by  a  syphilitic  harlot.  The  mother  of  these 
nine  children  had  two  bastard  children  before  her  marriage  and 
finally  died  in  the  poor-house  of  syphilis.  Seven  of  these  nine 
children  were  under  16  years  of  age  when  their  mother  died,  and 
were  left  in  the  poor-house  to  grow  up  and  form  poor-house  as- 
sociations. The  eldest  son  of  this  syphilitic  mother  was  sent  to  Sing 
Sing  for  rape  on  his  niece  (age  12)  and,  while  he  was  there,  his 
wife  had  a  bastard  son.  The  next  three  sons  all  married  harlots, 
and  the  other  four  were  criminals,  paupers  and  syphilitics.  A 
daughter  of  this  woman  acted  as  a  procuress  for  her  own  eldest  son 
of  a  girl  of  12,  whom  he  was  subsequently  forced  to  marry. 

REGISTERED  "jUKES." 

Generation  2 5  persons     Generation  5 224  persons 

Generation  3 34  persons     Generation  6 152  persons 

Generation  4 117  persons     Generation  7 8  persons 

RATE   OF   REPRODUCTION    AMONG   THE   "jUKES/' 

This  is  the  slowest  moving  branch  of  the  family  that  I  have 
found  among  these  recorded  by  Dugdale,  and  it  is  given  as  a  sample 
of  what  characterizes  the  mass  of  these  540  persons.  For  the  most 
part  the  children  were  produced  at  an  early  age.  One  girl  was  a 
mother  at  12,  and  others  were  mothers  a  very  little  older.  One  boy 
contracted  syphilis  at  the  age  of  13,  and  was  a  pauper  and  petit 
criminal  through  life.  He  was  born  when  his  father  was  18  and 
the  father  was  born  when  the  grandfather  was  20.  His  mother 
was  a  syphilitic  quadroon  and  second  cousin  to  her  husband,  who  was 


DEGENERACY.  213 

a  white  man.    He  had  four  children.    The  average  known  harlotry 
of  the  women  of  five  generations  is  52.4  per  cent. 


DUGDALE'S  CONCLUSIONS. 


Dugdale  draws  a  number  of  conclusions  from  his  investigations, 
of  which  I  will  mention  only  a  few. 

1.  Crime  as  compared  to  pauperism  indicates  vigor. 

2.  Pauperism  is  an  indication  of  weakness  of  some  kind,  either 
youth,  disease,  old  age,  injury,  or,  for  women,  child-birth. 

3.  The  eldest  child  tends  to  become  the  criminal  of  the  family 
and  the  youngest  child  the  pauper. 

4.  The  younger  children  are  more  likely  than  the  older  ones 
to  become  inmates  of  the  poor-house  through  the  misconduct  or 
misfortune  of  parents.     They  domesticate  themselves  there  and 
spontaneously  return  when  emergencies  of  life  overtake  them.    On 
the  other  hand,  children  old  enough  to  provide  for  themselves  are 
forced  by  necessity  to  rely  upon  themselves,  and  in  consequence 
are  less  liable  to  become  paupers  in  old  age. 

THE    REAL   EXPLANATION. 

It  remains  for  us  to  interpret  these  conclusions  in  the  light  of  the 
ages  of  parents  at  the  time  the  children  are  born.  The  class  here 
being  treated  of  are  illiterate,  very  few  being  able  to  read  or  write, 
are  vicious,  intemperate,  licentious,  and  frequently  acquire 
venereal  diseases.  Among  such  a  class,  a  person  born  healthy 
reaches  his  best  physical  development  not  far  from  the  age  of  25, 
after  which  there  comes  a  decline  due  to  intemperance,  sexual  ex- 
cesses or  disease.  As  a  consequence,  children  born  early  in  the  life  of 
such  parents  are  physically  more  vigorous  than  those  born  when 
their  parents  are  at  an  age  at  which  healthy  people  are  in  their 


214  DEGENERACY. 

prime.  Such  vigor  is,  however,  relative  rather  than  actual.  Even 
when  the  parents  are  born  healthy,  children  produced  after  the  age 
of  30  are  more  than  likely  to  be  tainted  with  degeneracy  arising 
from  parental  viciousness.  It  thus  happens  that  among  this  class 
of  people  the  only  persons  liable  to  be  physically  vigorous  are  the 
eldest  of  the  eldest  in  steady  procession. 

Crime  and  pauperism  may  be  considered  as  the  practical  protests 
of  persons  incapable  of  meeting  the  competition  of  their  fellow  men, 
because  no  man  will  go  into  crime  or  pauperism  unless  it  appears  to 
him  as  the  easiest  solution  of  his  difficulties.  This  is  but  another 
form  of  Herbert  Spencer's  principle  that  human  actions  follow  the 
lines  of  least  resistance.  When  this  inability  to  compete  in  the 
struggle  of  life  comes  from  a  weak  intellect  combined  with  a  com- 
paratively vigorous  body,  the  protest  takes  the  aggressive  form 
of  crime;  when  it  arises  from  physical  defects  and  lack  of  energy 
it  takes  the  humbler  form  of  pauperism. 

THE   GENESIS    OF    CRIME   AND    PAUPERISM. 

These  degenerate  classes  have  been  much  studied  with  a  view 
of. learning  the  causes  of  degeneracy  and  the  application  of  rem- 
edies, but  up  to  the  present  there  has  been  little  more  than  an  ac- 
cumulation of  partially  understood  facts.  In  some  cases  the  family 
history  of  degenerates  has  been  traced  through  six  or  seven  genera- 
tions, but  beyond  this  the  history  has  been  lost  in  the  mists  of  the 
past  and  the  real  origin  has  not  been  found.  The  most  that  is 
known  is  that  degenerate  classes,  and  classes  low  in  the  scale  of 
intelligence,  continue  indefinitely  in  the  same  stage. 

In  the  absence  of  definite  records  showing  the  origin  of  degen- 
erate families  we  will  construct  a  hypothetical  genealogy  of  one. 
There  occurs,  as  is  frequently  the  case,  an  early  reproduction,  say 


DEGENERACY.  21 5 

at  14  or  15  for  the  mother  and  15  or  16  for  the  father.  This  off- 
spring of  childish  parents  happens,  by  fortuitous  circumstances,  to 
unite  at  an  early  age  with  some  person  of  the  opposite  sex  who  has 
been  produced  in  the  same  manner.  From  this  union  we  have  a 
third  individual  who  is  the  product  of  immature  parents,  and  whose 
parents  are  both  products  of  immature  grandparents.  This  child 
is  healthy  so  far  as  freedom  from  disease  goes,  but,  from  what  has 
been  previously  shown,  we  know  that  he,  or  more  probably  she, 
will  lack  something  in  physical  stamina  and  very  much  in  mental 
capacity.  At  this  point  we  will  refer  to  our  typical  and  hypothetical 
ancestor  and  carry  his  characteristics  back  to  an  early  age. 

AGE    OF   ACUTE   SEXUALITY. 

From  the  time  of  puberty  to  the  age  of  twenty,  the  sexual  in- 
stincts are  acute  and  intense.  Unless  the  mind  be  kept  pretty 
steadily  at  studies,  or  on  some  subject  that  will  attract  the  atten- 
tion, the  thoughts  of  the  boy  or  girl  will  dwell  much  more  on  per- 
sons of  the  opposite  sex  than  upon  other  things.  As  a  consequence 
the  period  of  adolescence  is  a  period  of  sexual  intensity  and  passion, 
and  a  child  born  of  parents  at  this  age  has  the  sexual  instincts 
abnormally  developed,  the  same  as  we  have  aggressiveness  from 
parents  of  25,  the  love  of  the  beautiful  from  parents  of  35,  reasoning 
and  practical  usefulness  from  parents  of  45,  and  morality  and 
philosophy  from  parents  over  50. 

Returning  now  to  our  hypothetical  child,  we  have  a  low  grade 
of  intellectual  capacity  with  its  accompanying  low  appreciation  of 
morality,  together  with  acute  sexual  characteristics,  all  of  which 
have  their  origin  in  the  series  of  early  reproductions.  If  this  child 
be  a  female,  and  the  ordinary  opportunities  arise,  she  will  doubt- 
less begin  at  an  early  age  to  produce  illegitimate  offspring.  The 


2l6  DEGENERACY. 

earlier  of  these  children  will  doubtless  be  physically  healthy,  but 
they  will  inherit  the  accumulated  mental  and  moral  obliquities  of 
their  parent.  The  sexual  passions  of  such  a  parent  lead  to  sexual 
excesses,  to  exhaustion  and  to  disease,  with  the  result  that  the  later 
children  are  even  worse  than  the  first.  We  then  have  launched  upon 
the  world  another  family  of  "Jukes"  or  "Ishmaels"  with  all  of 
the  consequences  that  such  families  involve  upon  the  community. 

Although  this  hypothetical  case  does  not  represent  any  defi- 
nitely known  instance,  it  is  no  fancy  sketch  but  an  actual  representa- 
tion of  what  may  and  does  occur.  Every  one  knows  of  some  such 
instance  of  early  reproduction,  and  it  would  not  be  at  all  remark- 
able to  have  two  of  them  unite  to  produce  a  third. 

Among  the  better  classes,  especially  the  better  educated  classes, 
such  early  reproductions  are  rare,  though  not  always  non-existing, 
but  in  the  slums  of  our  large  cities,  and  in  many  groups  of  our 
laboring  classes,  they  are  quite  common.  It  is  from  the  females 
of  these  early  reproductions  that  are  recruited  the  great  mass  of  our 
prostitutes,  and  it  is  due  to  the  sterility  engendered  by  prostitution 
that  the  spread  of  degeneracy  is  checked.  If  we  could  save  these 
girls  from  prostitution  and  get  them  early  married,  we  would  soon 
have  a  decaying  race  of  people. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

LOWER  ANIMALS. 

Tracing  the  effect  of  age  of  parent  before  reproduction,  in  the 
development  of  mental  ability,  need  not  be  confined  to  man.  The 
same  result  may  be  shown  in  the  whole  animal  kingdom  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest.  It  is  my  purpose,  in  the  present  chapter, 
to  compare  various  animals  with  each  other  very  much  as  I  have 
compared  the  different  races  of  men.  In  doing  this  I  am  somewhat 
hampered  by  the  want  of  accurate  data,  but  I  have  been  able  to  se- 
cure enough  to  give  a  fair  idea  of  the  operation  of  the  law  of  use- 
inheritance.  In  making  comparisons  involving  the  ages  of  parents, 
due  consideration  must  be  given  to  the  size  and  bulk  of  the  animals, 
the  degree  of  their  activity,  and  the  conditions  under  which  they 
exist.  Thus,  a  comparison  between  a  mouse  and  a  tortoise  for 
age  would  not  be  legitimate  unless  due  consideration  be  given  to 
their  relative  sizes  and  their  relative  degrees  of  activity.  It  is 
also  quite  evident  that  a  cow,  which  has  little  to  do  but  eat,  sleep 
and  reproduce,  lives  under  quite  different  conditions  from  a  deer, 
which  has  to  seek  its  food  and  keep  on  the  alert  against  enemies. 
For  these  reasons  I  have  restricted  my  comparisons  as  much  as 
possible  to  animals  of  the  same  size,  and  have  noted  the  other 
differences  so  that  the  effect  of  age  before  reproduction  may  re- 
ceive its  proper  consideration. 

THE   APES. 

Next  to  man,  the  anthropoid  apes  are  the  highest  of  all  animals. 

Of  the  gorilla  I  have  not  been  able  to  learn  at  what  age  he  arrives 

217 


2l8  LOWER    ANIMALS. 

at  maturity  nor  how  long  he  lives.  Huxley  states1  that  the  orang- 
outan  is  not  believed  to  be  adult  before  the  age  of  ten  or  fifteen. 
In  writing  at  a  much  later  date,  Prof.  Hartmann  says2 :  "It  is  not 
yet  ascertained  at  what  age  the  orang  becomes  capable  of 
propagating  his  species,  nor  how  long  the  female  continues  to  bring 
forth  young.  *  *  *  The  young,  which  are  slow  in  coming  to 
maturity,  live  long  under  the  protection  of  their  mother."  Wood 
states3  that  the  chimpanzee  reaches  "perfection  of  development" 
at  the  age  of  nine  or  ten.  We  are  not  informed  what  "adult"  and 
"perfection  of  development"  in  these  connections  mean,  but,  ap- 
plied to  man,  they  would  mean  about  25  years.  We  may  therefore 
assume  that  the  orang  and  the  chimpanzee  begin  to  breed  at  about 
seven  or  eight,  and  that  the  average  age  of  reproduction  is  about 
15  to  1 8.  While  this  is  only  an  estimate  from  very  meagre  data, 
it  cannot  be  far  wrong. 

THE    HORSE. 

The  horse  is,  with  the  possible  exception  of  the  dog,  the  most 
intelligent  of  domestic  animals.  He  reaches  maturity  at  the  age 
of  4  or  5,  and  lives  beyond  20,  and  in  rare  cases  beyond  30.  He 
is  able  to,  and  does,  breed  at  an  early  age.  The  stallion  Hamble- 
tonian  commenced  in  the  stud  at  the  age  of  2  years  and  continued 
till  the  age  of  26*.  Mr.  William  Day,  writing  in  1888  of  the 
English  thoroughbred  horses,  says5 :  "The  three  best  stallions  this 
generation  has  seen — perhaps,  indeed,  the  best  ever  seen — are 
Touchstone,  Voltigeur,  and  Stockwell."  These  three  stallions  are 


(1)  Man's  Place  in  Nature,  1863,  p.  34. 

(2)  Anthropoid  Apes,  p.  248. 

(3)  Mammalia,  p.  23. 

(4)  Helm,  American  Roadsters,  p.  178. 

(5)  The  Horse,  p.  214. 


LOWER    ANIMALS. 

descended  in  three  lines  from  Eclipse,  foaled  in  1764,  and  are  5, 
6,  and  7  generations  respectively  from  their  ancestor.  The  short- 
est period  from  one  generation  to  the  next,  in  any  of  these  lines,  is 
seven  years,  and  the  longest  is  nineteen  years.  The  average  time 
per  generation  from  Eclipse  to  Touchstone  is  13.40  years;  to 
Voltigeur  is  13.83  years;  and  to  Stockwell  is  12.14  years.  From 
these  three  stallions  down  to  their  three  most  prominent  descend- 
ants, the  average  is  13  years.  Sanders  gives6  the  ages  of  sires  for 
56,  and  the  ages  of  dams  for  53,  famous  stallions  and  trotters. 
From  this  table  I  find  that  the  average  age  of  sires  at  birth  of  their 
offspring  was  13.18  years,  and  the  average  age  of  the  dams  was 
9.85  years.  If,  however,  we  omit  the  dams  of  stallions  and  take 
only  the  dams  of  trotters,  we  find  the  average  age  rises  to  10.55 
years.  In  only  six  cases  out  of  53  was  the  dam  less  than  7  years 
of  age.  From  these  we  may  conclude  that  a  stallion  is  at  his  best 
between  the  ages  of  10  and  15  and  that  a  mare  is  best  between 
8  and  12.  We  also  notice  that  the  dams  of  performers  are 
somewhat  older  than  the  dams  of  horses  known  only  as  sires. 

PARTICULAR    HORSES. 

To  discover  what  there  might  be  in  this  I  looked  up  the  ancestry 
of  several  performers,  of  which  Goldsmith  Maid  may  be  taken  as  a 
sample.  In  the  ancestry  of  this  great  trotter  I  find  mention  of  four 
"old  mares"  and  one  "mare"  about  which  there  is  no  statement 
of  age.  One  of  these  "old  mares"  was  13  and  another,  the  dam  of 
Goldsmith  Maid,  could  hardly  have  been  less  than  fifteen.  The 
paternal  ancestry  of  Goldsmith  Maid  is  5-3-26,  from  which  we  see 
that  there  were  two  reproductions  from  young  sires  mated  with  old 
mares,  the  dams  in  each  case  being  old.  In  this  case  we  evidently 

(6)     Horse  Breeding,  p.  161. 


22O  LOWER   ANIMALS. 

have  use-inheritance  accompanied  by  inheritance  by  sex.  The  fol- 
lowers of  Wiesmann  tell  us  that  the  trotting  horse  has  been  pro- 
duced solely  by  selection  and  not  at  all  by  the  results  of  use-inher- 
itance. On  the  contrary,  the  men  who  have  bred  our  great  trotters 
tell  us  that  no  great  trotters  have  been  produced  except  from 
mares  who  have  seen  much  hard  service,  and  they  give  us  many  ex- 
amples to  substantiate  the  assertion.  "The  famous  old  pacing  mare 
Pocahontas  paced  some  of  the  hardest  races  of  her  life  in  the  winter 
of  1853-4,  and  her  great  son,  Tom  Rolfe,  was  foaled  a  few  months 
afterwards."  Auracaria  was  foaled  by  Pocahontas  when  she  was 
25  years  old  and,  "contrary  to  what  might  be  expected,  this  daugh- 
ter of  her  old  age  herself  became  a  great  brood  mare,  producing, 
among  others,  the  grand  race  horses  Chamant  and  Rayon  D'Or.7" 
Sanders  also  tells  us8  that  "it  is  notorious  that  females  that  breed 
too  early  fail  to  attain  their  full  size  and  development.  Above  all, 
the  system  of  breeding  from  immature  animals  should  not  be  con- 
tinued from  generation  to  generation,  as  that  can  only  tend  to  ac- 
cumulate and  intensify  the  evil." 

THE   FASTEST   TROTTERS   IN    THE   WORLD. 

In  examining  the  pedigrees  of  the  132  fastest  trotting  horses 
in  the  world  I  found  the  average  age  of  the  sires  to  be  10.20  years, 
and  the  average  age  of  the  dams  to  be  9.20  years.  The  average  age 
of  the  grandsires  was  12.86  years,  and  of  the  grandams  it  was 
9.88.  For  great-grandsires  it  was  13.14  years,  and  for  great-gran- 
dams  it  was  10.56  years.  These  results  are  averages  from  a  total 
of  1,239  sires  and  dams,  and  they  illustrate  the  fact  that  while  the 
son  of  a  comparatively  young  sire  may  develop  considerable  speed 

(7)  Sanders,  Horse  Breeding,  pp.  178-9. 

(8)  Ibid.,  p.  174. 


LOWER   ANIMALS.  221 

as  a  trotter,  he  is  at  a  distinct  disadvantage  when  it  comes  to  the 
production  of  speed  in  the  next  generation.  In  fact,  all  of  the 
very  great  sires,  with  one  exception,  have  themselves  been  sons 
of  unusually  old  sires.  Hambletonian,  the  greatest  of  all  sires 
and  from  whom  are  descended  practically  all  of  the  horses  exhibit- 
ing excessive  speed  as  trotters,  was  foaled  in  1849  an<^  was  tne  son 
of  a  horse  26  years  of  age.  The  average  age  of  the  six  known 
sires  in  the  pedigree  of  Hambletonian  was  20.3  years,  and  those 
of  the  five  known  dams  averaged  more  than  15  years.  No  other 
known  horse  is  descended  from  such  a  uniform  series  of  old  sires 
and  old  dams. 

THE  GREATEST  SIRES  OF  SPEED. 

In  this  examination  I  found  five  horses  which  stood  out  pre- 
eminently as  appearing  more  frequently  in  the  pedigrees  of  per- 
formers than  did  other  horses.  The  ages  of  the  sires  of  these  five 
horses  averaged  18.6  years,  and  the  ages  of  their  grandsires  aver- 
aged 21  years.  These  extraordinary  ages  appearing  in  preceding 
generations  and  serving  as  a  basis  for  speed  in  succeeding  genera- 
tions are  confirmatory  of  what  is  only  partially  shown  in  man,  and 
furnish  an  explanation  of  why  some  of  our  eminent  men  have  been 
sons  of  comparatively  young  men. 

The  one  exception  of  a  great  sire  not  being  the  son  of  an  old 
horse  is  the  case  of  George  Wilkes,  and  is  exceedingly  instructive. 
George  Wilkes  was  the  son  of  Hambletonian  when  seven  years  old. 
He  was  a  small  horse,  was  sneered  at  as  "a  pony,"  and  not  being 
considered  of  much  value  for  breeding  purposes  was  kept  as  a  racing 
stallion.  During  the  first  seventeen  years  of  his  life  he  was  trained 
and  raced  more  than  any  other  stallion  that  ever  lived.  Having 
outlived  his  usefulness  as  a  race  horse  he  was  sent  to  the  stud  as 
the  only  thing  to  be  done  with  him,  and  during  the  few  remaining 


222  LOWER   ANIMALS. 

years  of  his  life  he  became  the  progenitor  of  more  horses  of  ex- 
treme speed  than  any  sire  except  Hambletonian. 

It  is  part  of  the  history  of  the  trotting  horse  during  the  nine- 
teenth century  that  those  stallions  which  were  selected  for  their 
fine  qualities  for  breeding  purposes  and  were  kept  without  being 
trained,  never  produced  anything  of  value,  while  those  stallions 
which  were  not  highly  esteemed,  but  which  were  regularly  trained, 
became  the  progenitors  of  great  speed  in  the  second  and  third 
generations. 

TRANSMISSION    BY    SEX    IN    HORSES. 

The  records  for  trotting  horses  enable  us  to  trace  in  them 
the  transmission  by  sex  of  acquired  functional  capacity.  Fifty 
years  ago  it  was  considered  detrimental  to  the  breeding  value  of 
a  stallion  to  use  him  for  racing  purposes.  Those  used  in  the  stud 
were  not  raced  and  those  raced  were  not  used  in  the  stud.  This 
prejudice  did  not  extend  to  mares,  and  the  result  was  that  the 
most  famous  trotters  were  mares.  During  more  recent  years  there 
has  been  a  change  of  sentiment  in  this  regard,  and  stallions  are 
now  both  bred  and  raced.  Under  these  conditions  the  extra  age 
of  sires  as  compared  to  dams  is  beginning  to  tell,  and  stallions  are 
now  slightly  more  speedy  than  mares. 

In  examining  the  pedigrees  of  fast  horses  I  found  that  the 
sires  of  fast  stallions  were  older  than  the  sires  of  fast  mares,  and 
that  the  dams  of  fast  mares  were  older  than  the  dams  of  fast 
stallions.  With  some  minor  exceptions  at  fragmentary  portions  of 
the  pedigrees,  this  peculiarity  is  found  to  extend  to>  the  grandsires 
and  granddams,  and  to  the  great-grandsires  and  great-granddams. 
In  other  words,  very  fast  stallions  arise  as  the  result  of  a  fortuitous 
combination  of  old  sires,  and  very  fast  mares  arise  as  the  result  of 
a  fortuitous  combination  of  old  dams. 


LOWER   ANIMALS.  22$ 

When  these  pedigrees  were  examined  for  activity  rather  than 
for  age,  it  was  found  that  the  sires,  grandsires  and  great-grandsires 
of  fast  stallions  were  more  highly  trained  than  were  the  sires, 
grandsires  and  great-grandsires  of  fast  mares.  It  was  also  found 
that  the  dams,  granddams  and  great-granddams  of  mares  were 
more  highly  trained  than  were  the  dams,  granddams  and  great- 
granddams  of  fast  stallions.  These  facts  show  that  the  develop- 
ment acquired  by  training  is  transmitted  by  sex.  This  is  further 
exemplified  by  the  fact  that  George  Wilkes,  the  most  highly  trained 
of  all  stallions,  appears  almost  invariably  as  grandsire  or  great- 
grandsire  in  the  straight  male  line.  In  other  words,  he  transmitted 
excessive  speed  to  the  third  and  fourth  generations  only  throoigh 
his  sons. 

THE  RELATION  OF  AGE  AND  TRAINING  IN  SIRES. 

Because  the  sires  of  fast  stallions  are  both  older  and  more 
highly  trained  than  are  the  sires  of  mares,  it  may  be  assumed  that 
the  highly  trained  horses  appear  as  the  old  horses,  but  such  is  not 
the  fact.  When  the  sires  in  the  pedigrees  of  stallions  were  sorted 
out  for  both  training  and  age,  it  was  found  that  whenever  com- 
paratively young  sires  appeared  in  the  pedigrees  they  were  the 
highly  trained  ones,  and  that  whenever  sires  appeared  which  were 
not  highly  trained  they  were  old  ones.  The  same  thing  is  true  of 
the  dams  in  the  pedigrees  of  fast  mares.  These  facts  show  that  to 
produce  fast  horses  the  progenitors  must  be  developed  either  by 
severe  training  or  by  the  allowance  of  a  sufficient  amount  of  time 
for  the  development  to  be  acquired  by  moderate  training. 

While  the  results  found  for  the  thoroughbred  stallions  and  for 
the  list  quoted  from  Sanders  indicates  that  the  best  age  for  stallions 
is  about  thirteen  years,  my  own  personal  investigations  into  the 


224  LOWER    ANIMALS. 

pedigrees  of  the  fastest  trotting  horses  in  the  world  and  published 
in  cxtenso  in  "The  Horseman,"  Chicago,  Dec.  2,  1902,  shows  that 
a  stallion  is  at  his  best  at  some  age  beyond  twenty.  The  reason 
why  this  does  not  appear  in  examining  the  pedigree  of  any  horse  is 
because  stallions  of  such  great  age  have  produced  very  few  foals, 
and  it  is  impossible  to  find  any  horse  descended  from  a  line  of  such 
old  sires.  The  nearest  approach  to  it  is  in  the  case  of  the  greatest 
of  all  stallions — Hambletonian.  His  own  sire  was  26  and  his  great- 
grandsire  was  28.  Cresceus,  the  fastest  trotting  stallion  in  the 
world  at  the  present  day,  is  the  son  of  a  horse  23  years  old,  and  he 
has  another  [23]  and  a  [22]  in  his  immediate  ancestry,  though 
not  in  the  straight  male  line. 

REPRODUCTION   EARLIER   IN    COMMON   HORSES   THAN  IN   BLOODED 

STOCK. 

What  has  been  given  clearly  shows  that  age  plays  an  important 
part,  and  that  the  parents  do  something  more  than  simply  transmit 
germ  plasm  identical  with  that  which  they  received.  The  result 
also  shows  what  is  best  for  the  horse  from  a  purely  physical  stand- 
point. These  ages  apply,  however,  only  to  fine  blooded  horses  and 
do  not  represent  what  actually  takes  place  with  horses  in  general. 
From  a  variety  of  sources  I  estimate  the  average  age  of  reproduc- 
tion for  all  horses  to  be  about  seven  years  for  the  dams,  and  eight 

or  nine  years  for  the  sires. 

CATTLE. 

The  cow  is  of  about  the  same  size  and  weight  as  the  horse, 
and  is  domesticated  under  almost  identical  conditions,  but  the  cow 
is  not  classed  as  among  the  intelligent  animals.  She  comes  to  the 
breeding  age  a  little  earlier,  and  does  not  last  as  long  as  the  mare. 
"It  has  been  our  custom  for  many  years,  for  dairy  purposes,  to 


LOWER   ANIMALS.  225 

breed  our  heifers  at  fifteen  or  seventeen  months,  so  as  to  cast  their 
first  calves  at  two  years  or  twenty-six  months  of  age,  and  we  have 
found  a  decided  advantage  in  it."9  The  same  authority  says  of 
bulls :  "they  should  not  be  used,  other  than  sparingly,  at  less  than 
two  years."10  At  the  other  extreme  we  find  that  the  short-horn 
cow,  Young  Mary,  had  fifteen  calves  and  died  at  21,  and  that  Old 
Comely,  the  dam  of  the  celebrated  bull  Twopenny,  was  killed  at 
the  age  of  26.  But  such  instances  of  longevity  among  cattle  are 
rare.  I  find,  however,  that  some  of  the  very  best  of  the  blooded 
stock  are  the  produce  of  unusually  old  animals.  The  celebrated 
bull  Favorite  (252  English  Herd  Book)  was  calved  in  1793.  When 
10  years  old  he  got  Comet  (155  E.  H.  B.),  the  famous  1,000 
guinea  bull;  and  the  next  year  got  North  Star  (458  E.  H.  B.), 
another  famous  bull.11  The  bull  Cotmore  (376),  who  is  said  to  have 
been  "one  of  the  finest  bulls  ever  seen,"  was  the  son  of  Sovereign 
(404),  when  at  the  age  of  15  years.12  These  are  said  to  be  ex- 
treme ages  and  not  at  all  representative  of  the  ordinary  practice. 
A  fair  idea  may  be  obtained  from  Allen's  remark13  that  "some 
men  have  a  strange  notion  that  after  a  bull  arrives  at  the  age  of 
4  or  5  years,  he  should  be  discarded."  I  estimate  the  average  age 
of  reproduction  for  cattle  at  4  or  5  years,  but  that  the  best  age  is 
about  3  or  4  years  more  than  this. 

DOGS    AND    SHEEP. 

The  dog,  which  vies  with  the  horse  as  being  the  most  intelligent 
of  domestic  animals,  reaches  maturity  at  two  or  three  years  of  age, 


(9)  Allen,  American  Cattle,  p.  260. 

(10)  Ibid.,  p.  263. 

(n)  Allen,  American  Cattle,  p.  264. 

(12)  Miles,  Stock  Breeding,  p.  163. 

(13)  American  Cattle,  p.  264. 


226  LOWER    ANIMALS. 

and  lives  to  ten  or  fifteen,  and  sometimes  to  over  twenty,  and  one 
has  been  known  to  live  to  thirty-four.  Owing  to  the  conditions 
under  which  the  dog  is  kept,  he  does  not  usually  breed  before  3  or  4 
years  old,  and  his  average  age  of  reproduction  must  be  about  7  or 
8  years.  His  association  with  man  and  the  instruction  given  him 
when  young,  makes  him  mentally  more  active  than  the  horse. 

The  sheep,  an  animal  slightly  larger  than  the  average  dog,  be- 
gins to  breed  at  less  than  one  year  of  age  and,  according  to  Youatt, 
will  continue  to  breed  up  to  the  age  of  ten.  The  average  age  of 
reproduction  is  about  3  or  4  years,  and  the  intelligence  is  corre- 
spondingly less  than  that  of  the  dog. 

RABBITS    AND    SQUIRRELS. 

The  rabbit  breeds  early  and  often.  It  begins  at  the  age  of  six 
months,  and,  in  a  state  of  nature,  can  rarely  survive  to  the  age  of 
three.  The  average  age  of  reproduction  must  be  less  than  two 
years. 

The  squirrel,  an  animal  somewhat  smaller  than  the  rabbit  but 
vastly  more  intelligent,  breeds  only  once  a  year,  and  the  young 
remain  with  the  parents  until  the  next  spring.  I  have  not  been 
able  to  determine  whether  they  breed  at  one  year  of  age,  or  wait 
until  the  second  year.  In  either  case,  the  average  age  of  reproduc- 
tion must  be  greater  than  with  the  rabbits,  as  they  produce  few 
at  a  time  and  live  longer.  "It  may  be  considered  pretty  certain 
that  both  the  Ground  Squirrel  and  the  Flying  Squirrel  hibernate, 
and  these  are  certainly  among  the  lowest — perhaps  are  actually  the 
lowest — in  intelligence  of  the  whole  tribe."14  Hibernation  may  be 
considered  as  so  much  time  taken  out  of  the  life  of  the  individual 
which  hibernates. 


(14)     Mills,  Animal  Intelligence,  p.  59. 


LOWER    ANIMALS.  227 

THE    BEAVER. 

The  beaver  is  by  far  the  most  intelligent  of  the  smaller  wild 
animals.  The  young  remain  with  their  parents  until  three  years 
of  age,  after  which  they  commence  a  colony  of  their  own.15  Al- 
though beavers  only  weigh  from  30  to  60  pounds,  this  makes  them 
begin  breeding  later  than  either  the  horse  or  the  cow,  and  later 
than  any  other  active  animal  anywhere  near  them  in  size.  I  have 
not  been  able  to  learn  how  long  they  live,  so  cannot  estimate  the 
average  age  of  reproduction.  I  find,  however,  that  the  young  ones 
assist  in  building  the  dams  and  lodges,  so  that  they  have  at  least 
two  years  of  practical  education  before  they  commence  producing 
young  ones  of  their  own. 

SEALS   AND   DEER. 

The  seal  is  another  very  intelligent  animal.  The  brain  is  large 
with  many  convolutions.  Seals  are  easily  tamed,  affectionate,  and 
docile;  at  zoological  gardens  they  are  taught  to  sit  erect,  to  bow, 
to  kiss  the  hand,  pretend  to  be  asleep  and  to  snore,  turn  the  crank 
of  an  organ,  shoulder  a  gun,  shake  hands,  and  perform  other  sim- 
ilar tricks.16  All  male  seals  under  six  years  of  age  are  "bachelor 
seals"  and  do  not  go  to  the  breeding  grounds.  Elliott  estimates 
that,  under  normal  conditions,  the  bull  of  the  Alaska  fur  seal  lives 
to  an  average  age  of  18  to  20  years,  and  the  cows  to  an  average  of 
ten  or  twelve  years.  He  also  estimates  the  average  age  of  males 
on  the  rookeries  at  15  to  20  years  and  the  females  at  9  to  10 
years.17  If  the  first  estimate  is  correct  it  would  appear  that  the 
last  estimate  was  high.  The  difference  in  age  of  the  males  and 

(15)  Martin,  Castorologia,  p.  48;  also  Brown,  Animals  and  Birds,  p.  7. 

(16)  American  Cyclopaedia,  Vol.    XIV,  pp.  730-1 

(17)  Brown,  Animals  and  Birds,  pp.  175  to  186. 


228  LOWER    ANIMALS. 

females  is  accompanied  by  a  corresponding  difference  in  size,  the 
females  being  about  one-half  the  size  of  the  males. 

The  deer  is  an  animal  not  much  different  in  size  from  the  seal, 
it  is  very  active  and,  living  where  it  is  exposed  to  many  enemies, 
it  has  to  be  constantly  on  the  alert  for  its  own  protection,  but  no 
one  would  think  of  attempting  to  teach  the  deer  such  tricks  as  are 
taught  to  seals,  or  any  other  tricks  comparable  to  them.  The  deer 
breeds  at  the  age  of  2,  comes  to  maturity  at  3,  and  may  live  to  the 
age  of  2O.18  The  average  age  of  reproduction  is,  however,  about 
4  or  5  years  as  against  12  or  15  years  for  the  seal. 

ELEPHANT   AND    HIPPOPOTAMUS. 

The  elephant,  owing  to  its  huge  size  and  strength,  lives  a  life 
comparatively  free  from  natural  enemies  and,  consequently,  of 
comparative  peace,  yet  it  is  one  of  the  most  intelligent  and  sagacious 
of  all  animals.  It  comes  to  maturity  at  about  30  years  of  age  and 
is  said  to  live  150  years.  It  probably  begins  to  breed  at  about  the 
age  of  25,  but  I  am  not  able  to  estimate  the  average  age  of  repro- 
duction. It  must,  however,  be  high. 

The  nearest  animal  which  I  can  compare  with  the  elephant  is 
the  hippopotamus,  and  that  comparison  is  not  very  complete.  An 
adult  hippopotamus  is  about  14  feet  in  length  and  girth.  A  young 
one,  about  10  months  old,  received  in  London  was  one-half  this 
length  and  girth  and  consequently  about  one-eighth  the  weight.19 
From  this  it  would  appear  that  the  hippopotamus  becomes  adult 
between  the  ages  of  3  and  5. 

GUINEA   PIGS  AND   WHITE    MICE. 

Coming  down  to*  small  animals,  the  Guinea  pig  may  be  said  to 
be  anything  but  intelligent.  It  begins  to  breed  at  the  age  of  9  or 

(18)  American  Cyclopaedia,  Vol.  VII,  p.  75. 

(19)  American  Cyclopaedia,  Vol.  VIII,  p.  742. 


LOWER   ANIMALS.  229 

10  weeks  and  breeds  every  5  weeks.  White  mice  are  a  degenerat- 
ing type,  and  are  used  for  experimental  purposes  because  they 
begin  to  breed  at  the  age  of  30  days  and  breed  every  30  days.20 

BIRDS. 

The  common  hen  is  quite  a  stupid  bird.  It  is  certainly  not  a 
teachable  animal.  Geyelin  says  :21  "It  has  been  ascertained  that  a 
hen  cannot  possibly  lay  more  than  600  eggs."  From  a  table  given 
by  him  it  appears  that  about  two-thirds  of  these  are  produced  be- 
fore the  age  of  4  years.  The  average  age  of  reproduction  may 
therefore  be  placed  at  2  years.  As  compared  with  the  hen,  the 
"century  living  crow"  may  be  considered  as  remarkably  intelligent. 
A  great  many  anecdotes  have  been  told  of  the  crow's  sagacity  and 
the  difficulty  man  has  in  deceiving  it.  The  parrot  is  probably  the 
most  intelligent  of  all  birds,  and  it  is  known  to  live  to  a  great  age. 
Humboldt  saw  in  South  America  a  parrot  which  was  the  sole  living 
creature  that  could  speak  the  language  of  a  lost  tribe.22 
Lankester23  states  that  they  live  to  the  age  of  120  years,  are  the 
longest  lived  of  all  birds,  and  are  also  the  highest  of  all  birds.  As 
the  average  age  of  reproduction  is  approximately  one-half  the  aver- 
age length  of  life,  we  may  estimate  the  crow  and  the  parrot  as 
compared  to  the  hen. 

INSECTS. 

Bumble  bees  rank  considerably  above  ordinary  insects  in  intel- 
ligence. In  spring  and  early  summer  only  queens  are  found. 
These  build  nests  and  perform  the  duties  of  both  queen  and  work- 
ers. The  first  broods  produced  by  them  are  workers  who  subse- 


(20)  Talbot,  Degeneracy,  p.  48. 

(21)  Poultry  Breeding,  p.  27. 

(22)  Descent  of  Man,  Vol  I,  p.  228. 

(23)  Comparative  Longevity,  pp.  56  to  60  and  74. 


230  LOWER    ANIMALS. 

quently  relieve  the  queen  of  the  worker's  duties.  Late  in  the  sum- 
mer males  and  young  queens  appear.  In  the  autumn  all  but  the 
young  queens  perish.  These  hibernate  in  protected  places  until 
spring  when  they  found  new  colonies.24  Here  we  have  an  ex- 
istence of  a  little  more  than  a  year,  about  eight  months  of  which 
is  intense  activity.  That  part  of  the  new  generation  which  is  to 
continue  the  species  is  produced  the  last  thing,  the  early  products 
being  used  as  infertile  workers. 

This  is  in  marked  contrast  with  butterflies  and  moths.  As  cater- 
pillars their  lives  are  anything  but  active ;  as  cocoons  they  hibernate ; 
and  as  adults  they  flutter  about  for  a  few  days  and  expire.  The 
relative  intelligence  of  bumble  bees  and  moths  is  proportional  to  the 
length  of  their  active  lives. 

The  honey  bee  is  much  above  the  bumble  bee.  If  the  queen  be 
accidentally  killed  or  lost,  the  hive  is  thrown  into  the  greatest  con- 
fusion ;  the  bees  rush  from  the  hive  and  seek  the  queen  in  all  direc- 
tions ;  after  some  hours  all  becomes  quiet  again  and  labors  are  re- 
sumed. If  there  be  no  eggs  nor  brood  in  the  combs,  the  bees  seem 
to  lose  their  faculties;  they  cease  to  labor  and  to  collect  food,  and 
the  whole  community  soon  dies.  If  there  be  brood  in  the  combs,  the 
labors  continue  as  follows :  having  selected  a  grub  not  more  than 
three  days  old,  the  workers  sacrifice  three  contiguous  cells  that  the 
cell  of  the  grub  may  be  made  into  a  royal  cell ;  they  supply  it  with 
the  peculiar  stimulating  jelly  reserved  for  the  queens,  and  at  the  end 
of  the  usual  sixteen  days  the  larva  of  a  worker  is  metamorphosed 
into  a  queen.25  This  is  intelligence  and  not  instinct,  and  this  intel- 
ligence is  inherited  from  the  queen  which  lives  several  years,  and 
much  longer  than  either  the  workers  or  the  drones. 

(24)  Comstock,  Insect  Life,  p.  257. 

(25)  Appleton's  Cyclopaedia. 


LOWER   ANIMALS.  23! 

DARWIN    ON    THE    COCCUS   AND   THE  ANT. 

"The  female  coccus,  while  young,  attaches  itself  by  its  proboscis 
to  a  plant;  sucks  the  sap,  but  never  moves  again;  is  fertilized  and 
lays  eggs ;  and  this  is  its  whole  history.  On  the  other  hand,  to  de- 
scribe the  habits  and  mental  powers  of  a  female  ant  would  require, 
as  Pierre  Huber  has  shown,  a  large  volume ;  I  may,  however,  briefly 
specify  a  few  points.  Ants  communicate  information  to  each  other, 
and  several  unite  for  the  same  work,  or  games  of  play.  They 
recognize  their  fellow  ants  after  months  of  absence.  They  build 
great  edifices,  keep  them  clean,  close  the  doors  in  the  evening,  and 
post  sentries.  They  make  roads  and  even  tunnels  under  rivers. 
They  collect  food  for  the  community,  and  when  an  object  too  large 
for  entrance  is  brought  to  the  nest,  they  enlarge  the  door,  and  after- 
wards build  it  up  again.  They  go  out  to  battle  in  regular  bands, 
and  freely  sacrifice  their  lives  for  the  common  weal.  They  emigrate 
in  accordance  with  a  preconcerted  plan.  They  capture  slaves. 
They  keep  Aphides  as  Milch-cows.  They  move  the  eggs  of  the 
aphides  as  well  as  their  own  eggs  and  cocoons,  into  warm  parts 
of  the  nest,  in  order  that  they  may  be  quickly  hatched;  and  end- 
less similar  facts  could  be  given.  On  the  whole,  the  difference 
in  mental  power  between  an  ant  and  a  coccus  is  immense;  yet 
no  one  has  ever  dreamed  of  placing  them  in  distinct  classes,  much 
less  in  distinct  kingdoms."26 

In  comparison  to  its  size,  the  ant  is  the  most  intelligent  of  all 
living  creatures,  and  by  the  same  comparison  it  is  the  longest  lived. 
Sir  John  Lubbock  kept  a  queen  ant  for  fourteen  years  and  he  did 
not  know  how  old  she  was  when  he  got  her.  If  men  lived  as  long 
for  their  size  we  would  have  some  of  the  inhabitants  of  ancient 
Babylon  and  Egypt  living  amongst  us  as  young  men. 

(26)     Descent  of  Man,  Vol  I,  p.  179. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

REPRODUCTION,  PUBERTY  AND  LONGEVITY. 

Nearly  a  century  ago  Lamarck  told  us  that  "the  development  of 
organs  and  their  force,  or  power  of  action  (functional  capacity) 
are  in  direct  relationship  to  the  employment  of  these  organs"  and 
that  "all  that  has  been  acquired  or  altered  in  the  organization  of 
individuals  during  their  lives  is  preserved  by  generation,  and  trans- 
mitted to  individuals  which  spring  from  those  which  have  under- 
gone these  changes."  In  stating  his  laws  Lamarck  laid  particular 
stress  on  the  fact  that  acquired  changes  are  proportional  to  the 
activity  of  the  organs  and  the  length  of  time  during  which  the 
activity  was  continued,  and  he  states  that  the  transmission  of  ac- 
quired characters  takes  place  after  the  acquirement.  By  the  very 
simple  process  of  comparing  the  offspring  of  individuals  "which 
have  undergone  these  changes"  in  different  degrees,  we  have  found 
that  "the  development  of  organs  and  their  force,  or  power  of  action" 
in  the  offspring  are  "proportional  to  the  length  of  their  employ- 
ment" in  parents,  exactly  as  Lamarck  told  us  they  were. 

This  process  of  comparison  has  been  carried  through  various 
animals,  the  different  races  of  men,  and  different  men  in  the  higher 
races.  Taking  the  series  as  a  whole,  we  find  that  the  inheritance 
by  offspring,  if  not  absolutely  proportional  to  ancestral  acquirement 
by  use,  is  so  nearly  proportional  that  we  are  not  able  to  point  out 
the  discrepancies. 

THE    FACTORS   OF   ANCESTRAL    USE. 

Ancestral  use  is  made  up  of.  two  factors,  activity,  and  length 
of  time  during  which  activity  is  continued  before  reproduction. 

232 


REPRODUCTION,    PUBERTY   AND   LONGEVITY.  233 

We  may  have  these  two  factors  in  three  combinations ;  first,  when 
both  factors  are  relatively  low ;  second,  when  one  factor  is  low  and 
the  other  is  high;  and  third,  when  both  factors  are  relatively  high. 
In  the  first  case  we  have  the  lowest  forms  of  animal  life,  among 
which  we  may  include  the  worms.  The  second  case  is  in  two 
forms,  (a)  those  in  which,  the  activity  is  low  and  the  time  is  high 
as  in  turtles,  shell  fish  and  degenerating  forms  of  parasites,  and 
(b)  those  in  which  the  activity  is  high  and  the  time  is  low,  as  in 
insects  and  most  birds.  In  the  third  case  we  have  the  higher 
mammals,  and  we  find  their  height  in  the  scale  proportionately  to 
the  product  of  these  two  factors. 

SELECTED    CASES    FOR   COMPARISON. 

By  taking  a  series  of  cases  among  the  higher  mammals  in 
which  the  activity  does  not  vary  greatly  and  in  which  the  length 
of  time  before  reproduction  is  pretty  accurately  known,  and  by 
making  a  diagram  for  this  series  of  cases,  we  have  the  diagonal 
line  shown  in  Fig.  n.  If  we  were  to  make  another  diagram  in 
which  the  figures  at  the  side  represented  the  inherited  mental  power 
of  these  classes  of  individuals  instead  of  their  average  ages  at 
reproduction,  we  would  draw  practically  the  same  diagonal  line. 
We  thus  see  that  the  quality  of  the  inheritance  is  proportional  to 
the  factor  time.  We  are  able  to  determine  this  pretty  accurately 
because  time  may  be  expressed  numerically.  Unfortunately  the  fac- 
tor activity  cannot  be  so  definitely  known,  but  by  comparing  such 
animals  as  the  tortoise  and  the  parrot,  hibernating  and  non-hiber- 
nating animals,  and  our  observations  that,  as  far  as  known,  great 
men  have  been  the  sons  of  mentally  active  men,  we  may  be  quite 
sure  that  we  would  find  the  same  proportionalism  for  activity  when 
the  f«cto*  time  was  constant. 


234 


REPRODUCTION,    PUBERTY   AND   LONGEVITY. 


2LO 


10 


FIG.   11— APPROXIMATE  AVERAGE   AGES    AT    REPRODUCTION.    ILLUSTRAT- 
ING RELATIVE   INTELLIGENCE. 


LENGTH    OF   TIME   DEVELOPMENT    CONTINUES. 

In  the  higher  animals  the  degree  of  activity,  both  mental  and 
physical,  necessary  for  continued  development  lasts  to  a  very  late 
period  in  life.  We  may  observe  the  increase  in  intelligence,  coming 
from  increased  age,  as  low  in  the  scale  as  among  fishes.  Young 
fish  may  be  easily  caught,  but  old  fish  are  wary  and  are  caught 
with  difficulty.  That  the  physical  powers  persist,  and  even  increase, 
up  to  nearly  the  limit  of  life,  we  see  principally  exemplified  in 
polygamous  animals,  among  which  an  old  male  is  almost  always 


REPRODUCTION,    PUBERTY    AND   LONGEVITY.  235 

the  head  of  a  herd,  a  position  which  he  maintains  by  means  of  his 
superior  strength.  It  is  only  with  man  in  civilized  and  semi-civ- 
ilized communities  that  the  old  become  feeble  long  before  dissolu- 
tion, and  this  feebleness  may  be  almost  certainly  attributed  to  his 
own  and  his  ancestors'  vicious  lives. 

As  the  degree  of  activity  is  normally  sufficient  for  a  continued 
development  to  a  late  period  in  life,  and  as  the  degree  of  activity 
for  any  given  class  of  animals  cannot  be  varied  so  greatly  as  can  be 
the  period  of  reproduction,  we  may  consider  time  as  the  principal 
element  in  evolution.  We  may  observe  this  among  men,  who  vary 
most  in  activity  and  by  whom  more  children  are  conceived  before 
they  arrive  at  twenty-four  years  of  age  than  after  they  have  passed 
forty-four.  No  matter  how  extraordinary  be  the  mental  activity,  a 
man  cannot  acquire  before  the  age  of  twenty-four  a  mental  de- 
velopment equal  to  what  another  man  will  acquire  at  the  age  of 
forty-four  by  a  very  moderate  degree  of  mental  activity. 

EVOLUTION   OF   MAN   AND  THE   HIGHER  ANIMALS. 

Among  the  higher  mammals,  and  especially  with  man,  an  in- 
crease in  time  carries  with  it  a  gradual  increase  in  mental  activity, 
so  that  whenever  there  is  an  increase  in  time  before  the  act  of  re- 
production, that  fact  will  of  itself  cause  an  increase  of  mental 
activity  without  the  aid  of  any  special  mental  stimulus.  In  other 
words,  time  is  itself  a  stimulus  to  mental  activity,  and  whenever  we 
have  an  increase  of  time  before  reproduction,  then  we  have  a  sure 
progenitor  of  progress. 

Having  proved  that  the  length  of  time  between  generations  is 
the  principal  factor  in  evolution,  we  have  an  explanation  of  the 
wonderful  rise  and  fall  of  Greece  and  Rome,  and  an  explanation 
of  why  some  races  have  risen  from  barbarism  and  others  have  not. 


236  REPRODUCTION,    PUBERTY    AND    LONGEVITY. 

We  have  also  an  explanation  of  why  some  animals  are  higher  in 
the  scale  than  others,  and  we  have  placed  in  our  hands  a  ready 
means  for  raising  the  standard  of  the  human  race  and  for  developing 
our  domestic  animals. 

It  having  been  shown  that  increased  age  in  parents  is  an  ab- 
solutely essential  element  in  the  progressive  evolution  of  intellect, 
and  that  there  is  no  limit  to  the  amount  of  age  which  may  be 
advantageously  added  to  parents  before  the  time  of  reproduction 
provided  these  parents  maintain  their  physical  health  and  vigor, 
it  becomes  interesting  to  know  what  steps  may  be  taken  for  ad- 
vancement along  this  line.  The  first  step  would,  of  course,  be 
delaying  the  age  of  puberty,  as  such  delay  would  shut  off  the  very 
early  reproduction,  and  there  are  very  good  reasons  for  thinking 
that  as  much  time  is  added  to  the  latter  part  of  the  reproductive 
period  as  is  subtracted  from  the  first  part  by  delay. 

THE   AGE   OF    PUBERTY. 

Ouatref ages1  has  given  us  statistics  as  to  the  age  of  female  puber- 
ty, and  from  these  it  appears  the  time  of  arrival  at  puberty  is  more  or 
less  affected  by  climate,  by  quality  and  amount  of  nutrition,  and 
by  mode  of  life.  For  Paris  he  states  that  the  average  age  of  female 
puberty  is,  for  the  upper  classes,  13  years  and  8  months;  for  the 
middle  class,  14  years  and  5  months,  and  for  the  lower  classes  14 
years  and  10  months.  Country  girls  are  behind  city  girls  four  and 
one-half  months  for  Paris  and  eight  and  one-half  months  for 
Strassburg.  For  Toulon  the  average  age  is  given  as  14  years  and 
5  days,  for  Strassburg  as  16  years  and  54  days.  Between  these 
two  cities  there  is  a  difference  of  three  degrees  of  latitude  and  five 
degrees  of  mean  temperature;  Toulon  is  equable  and  sunny,  and 
(i)  The  Human  Species,  p.  416. 


REPRODUCTION,    PUBERTY    AND    LONGEVITY.  237 

the  inhabitants  live  outdoors  and  drink  wine ;  the  climate  of  Strass- 
burg  is  uneven  and  cloudy  and  the  people  live  in  the  houses  and 
drink  beer.  M.  Raciborski  draws  the  conclusion  that  the  age  of 
puberty  is  advanced  or  retarded  a  little  more  than  a  month  for 
each  degree  of  latitude,  with  the  condition  that  the  temperature 
varies  with  the  latitude.  We  find  this  exemplified  in  the  Creoles  of 
Jamaica,  who  arrive  at  puberty  at  from  10  to  n  years  of  age,  while 
with  the  Swedes  and  Norwegians  this  stage  is  delayed  till  the  age 
of  15  or  16. 

CAUSES  INFLUENCING  THE  AGE  OF  PUBERTY. 

While  the  average  age  of  female  puberty  may  be  set  at  about 
14  years  for  the  central  portion  of  the  temperate  climate,  it  may  be 
instructive  to  look  a  little  more  closely  at  the  causes  of  variation  at 
a  definite  place.  I  have  previously  pointed  out  that  during  the 
adolescent  stage  the  individual  is  acutely  sexual,  and  that  children 
produced  during  this  period  are  more  intensely  sexual  in  character 
than  those  produced  at  a  later  stage  in  life.  An  individual  who 
has  one  inherited  character  more  intense  than  other  characters  will 
have  that  particular  character  developed  at  an  earlier  age  in  him 
than  it  is  developed  in  an  ordinary  individual.2  As  a  consequence, 
the  child  of  an  early  reproduction  is  more  likely  to  arrive  at  puberty 
at  an  early  age  than  one  who  is  produced  from  old  parents,  and  in 
cases  of  successive  early  reproductions  this  tendency  will  be  still 
more  strongly  marked.  We  would  also  have  the  same  result  in 
cases  where  parents  had  habitually  indulged  in  sexual  excesses  for 
a  considerable  period  prior  to  the  conception  of  children.  We  have 
abundant  evidence  of  this  in  the  cases  of  the  "Jukes"  and  "Ish- 


(2)     It  is  only  necessary,  for  the  proof  of  this  assertion,  to  compare  the 
characters  and  aptitudes  of  our  354  great  men  with  each  other. 


238  REPRODUCTION,    PUBERTY    AND    LONGEVITY. 

maels."  Although  these  people  live  in  a  climate  where  the  average 
age  of  puberty  is  between  14  and  15  years,  many  of  the  girls  bear 
children  before  these  ages  and  sometimes  are  mothers  at  12.  Parents 
who  necessarily  work  hard  are  less  likely  to  indulge  in  sexual  ex- 
cesses than  those  who  live  in  luxury  and  ease,  a  fact  that  readily 
accounts  for  the  difference  in  age  of  puberty  between  the  upper 
and  lower  classes  of  Paris  and  the  difference  between  city  and 
country.  This  is  a  better  explanation  than  assuming  that  the  dif- 
ference is  caused  by  the  food  and  mode  of  life  of  the  children 
themselves,  because  some  of  the  poorest  and  most  illy  nourished  are 
notoriously  licentious  and  their  children  come  earliest  to  puberty. 
Besides  the  Jukes  and  the  Ishmaels  we  have  an  example  in  the 
Eskimos,  who  are  low  in  the  scale  of  intelligence,  who  idle  in  their 
huts  except  when  forced  to  seek  food,  who  are  immoral  in  their 
sexual  relations,  and  who  come  to  puberty  at  an  early  age  in  defiance 
of  the  effects  of  temperature  and  quality  of  food.  I  have  before 
pointed  out  that  the  lower  classes  produce  children  at  a  very  early 
age,  and  Darwin  speaks  of  most  savages  as  being  "utterly  licen- 
tious."3 

We  may  therefore  conclude  that  early  puberty  is  ~a  case  of  use- 
inheritance  arising  from  sexual  intensity  and  excess  in  parents, 
and  that  it  has  its  orgin  in  early  reproduction. 

EARLY    REPRODUCTION    AND    LONGEVITY. 

Early  reproduction  and  early  puberty  not  only  lead  to  low 
mentality  and  degeneracy,  but  to  early  decay  and  early  death. 
Lankester  gives4  the  following  table  of  expectancy  of  life : 


(3)  Descent  of  Man,  Vol.  II,  p.  366. 

(4)  Comparative  Longevity,  p.  118. 


REPRODUCTION,    PUBERTY    AND    LONGEVITY.  239 

Expectancy  of  life  at  the  age  of  60. 

Healthy  English  lives J5-37  years 

All  English  males I3-53  years 

Sovereigns  of  all  countries 10.90  years 

Intemperate  persons 8.94  years 

Sovereigns  are,  as  much  as  possible,  a  succession  of  the  earliest 
reproductions,  and  we  find  them  the  shortest  lived,  on  the  average, 
of  all  persons  except  the  intemperate.  Not  all  sovereigns,  how- 
ever, have  succeeded  to  the  throne  in  the  ordinary  routine,  and  the 
same  authority  states  that  hereditary  princes  are  less  long  lived 
than  those  who  have  won  their  positions  by  merit.5  There  is  also 
given  a  table  showing  the  expectancy  of  different  classes  at  all  ages, 
and  the  marked  advantage  of  the  female  of  the  English  peerage 
over  the  males  brings  forth  the  comment  that  the  contrast  between 
the  two  is  greater  than  between  the  sexes  of  any  other  recorded 
group.6  The  females  of  the  English  peerage,  unlike  the  males,  are 
not  necessarily  the  earliest  reproductions.  They  may  be  the  latest 
born  or  even  the  product  of  families  outside  of  the  peerage. 

Still  more  emphatic  is  the  following  table: 

Average  age  of  those  dying  after  5i.7 

Clergy  69.49  years 

Lawyers    68.41  years 

Literary  and  scientific 67.55  years 

Artists  65.96  years 

This  is  a  classification  that  runs  exactly  parallel  with  our  pre- 
vious classifications  under  the  head  of  mental  aptitudes,  and  from 

(5)  Ibid.,  p.  108. 

(6)  Ibid.,  pp.  115  and  120. 

(7)  Comparative  Longevity,  p.  109. 


240  REPRODUCTION,    PUBERTY    AND    LONGEVITY. 

our  previous  tables  we  could  give  the  average  ages  of  the  fathers 
of  these  men  without  knowing  anything  about  who  they  were. 

THE   LONGEVITY   AND    BIRTH-RANKS    OF   GREAT    MEN. 

To  test  this  matter  more  fully  I  have  calculated  the  length  of 
life  of  all  of  the  great  men  of  whom  I  have  the  birth-ranks,  omitting 
a  few  who  came  to  violent  deaths  from  one  cause  or  another.  The 
result  of  this  is  shown  in  the  following  table : 

Relation  of  Birth-Rank  to  Length  of  Life. 

No.  of  Aggregate          Average 

Birth-Ranks.  Persons.  Ages.  Ages. 

Over  51    51 3>4?6 68.15 

45-50 54 3>7i° 68-70 

41-44 45 2,933 65.18 

35-40 54 3,539 ^5-54 

31-34 42 2,817 67-07 

Under  31    45 2,855 63.44 

This  table  shows  quite  plainly  that  sons  of  old  fathers  live  longer 
than  sons  of  young  fathers,  a  fact  that  corresponds  with  what  has 
gone  before  and  also  with  our  previous  observations  in  regard  to 
horses,  cattle  and  seals. 

•«  u  \  ,        SELECTION    ELIMINATED. 

There  enters  into  this  matter,  however,  a  question  of  selection. 
It  may  be  argued  that  the  sons  of  old  men  are  necessarily  the  sons 
of  long  lived  parents,  while  sons  of  young  men  are  the  sons  of  both 
long  lived  and  short  lived  parents,  and  consequently  cannot  be 
expected  to  live  so  long  on  an  average.  This  contention  has  a 
reasonable  sound  and  is,  in  fact,  more  reasonable  than  many  of  the 
attempts  to  explain  by  selection  those  phenomena  generally  attrib- 


REPRODUCTION,    PUBERTY    AND    LONGEVITY.  24! 

uted  to  use-inheritance,  but  it  can  be  shown  to  be  fallacious.  To 
do  this  I  again  had  recourse  to  the  Redfield  Genealogy  and  selected 
from  it  every  family  which  had  four  or  more  sons  who  reached 
maturity  and  who  did  not  lose  their  lives  because  of  war  or  accident. 
The  result  of  this  has  been  put  into  the  following  table : 

Average  Life  of  Different  Sons. 

Eldest  Son.     Second  Son.     Third  Son.     Fourth  Son. 
Years  ....         60.85  69.14  69.85  71-14 

Here  we  find  that  the  average  length  of  life  of  the  fourth  sur- 
viving son  is  more  than  ten  years  greater  than  the  average  life  of 
the  eldest  surviving  son.  There  can  be  no  selection  in  this  case 
because  the  different  sons  of  a  family  are  sons  of  identical  parents, 
and  not  sons  of  different  and  selected  parents.  Furthermore,  we 
find  the  results  in  this  case  more  uniform  and  more  emphatic  than 
in  the  previous  case,  and  from  it  we  may  conclude  that  selection 
has  no  bearing  on  the  matter. 

LONGEVITY    AND   BIRTH-RANKS    OF    BROTHERS    AND    SISTERS. 

To  test  this  matter  still  further  I  took  some  fifteen  or  twenty 
different  family  genealogies  and  abstracted  from  them  every  family 
in  which  four  or  more  children  lived  to  become  adults.  In  doing 
this  I  made  no  discrimination  between  sons  and  daughters,  but 
took  all  that  came  and  tabulated  them  for  birth-ranks  and  length  of 
life.  From  1,104  persons  thus  selected,  and  among  whom  those 
having  high  birth-ranks  were  the  brothers  and  sisters  of  those 
having  low  birth-ranks,  it  was  found  that  there  was  a  very  uniform 
increase  in  length  of  life  as  birth-ranks  grew  higher. /The  ages  of 
the  fathers  ranged  from  19  to  64,  and  a  diagram  made  from  the 
table  showed  that  for  each  four  years  added  to  the  age  of  the 
father  one  year  was  added  to  the  length  of  life  of  the  child.  I  also 


242  REPRODUCTION,    PUBERTY   AND   LONGEVITY. 

abstracted  from  the  table  all  of  those  persons  living  more  than 
eighty  years  and  those  living  less  than  sixty  years.  Those  living 
more  than  eighty  years  were  distributed  according  to  birth-ranks 
and  were  compared  with  the  normal  distribution  of  persons  living 
to  this  age  as  determined  from  all  of  these  persons.  From  this 
comparison  it  was  found  that  when  the  fathers  were  less  than 
twenty-five  years  of  age  only  forty  per  cent  of  the  normal  number 
lived  to  be  eighty  years  old.  When  the  fathers  were  over  fifty 
years  of  age,  one  hundred  and  forty  per  cent  of  the  normal  number 
lived  to  this  age.  In  other  words,  the  chances  of  the  adult  son  of 
a  fifty-year-old  father  living  to  eighty  years  of  age  are  three  and 
one-half  times  as  good  as  are  the  chances  of  the  son  of  a  twenty- 
five-year-old  father.  When  the  mark  was  set  at  sixty  years  of  life 
instead  of  eighty  years,  it  was  found  that  the  chances  of  long  life  in 
favor  of  the  son  of  the  older  father  were  1.6  to  i. 

BIRTH-RANKS  AND  EXPECTANCY. 

The  results  of  this  tabulation  were  then  put  into  the  following 
table  of  expectancy : 

Table  of  Expectancy  by  Birth-Ranks  and  Ages. 
Expectancy  of  life  at  age  of 

Birth-Ranks.  25  30  40 

Less  than  30 39.53 35.88 29.22 

3<>  to  39 40.33 36.23 29.62 

40  to  49 42.44 38.52 30.81 

50  and  over 45.27 41.45 31.95 

The  expectancy  of  this  table  is  somewhat  higher  than  that  of 
insurance  tables,  and  this  difference  arises  from  two  causes.  First, 
I  eliminated  all  of  those  persons  known  to  have  been  killed  by  acci- 


REPRODUCTION,    PUBERTY   AND   LONGEVITY.  243 

dent  or  war.  The  reason  for  doing  this  is  that  this  is  an  investiga- 
tion of  natural  heredity  and  not  an  investigation  of  accidents.  The 
other  reason  is  that  the  children  of  large  families  appear  to  live 
longer,  on  an  average,  than  children  of  small  families.  This  arises 
from  the  fact  that  parents  do  not  usually  rear  large  families  of 
children  living  to  become  adults  unless  they  themselves  have  con- 
siderable stamina. 

INFANT    MORTALITY. 

Another  peculiarity  of  this  investigation  is  that  infant  mor- 
tality increases  with  the  age  of  the  parents  and  is  greatest  with  the 
last  child  produced.  The  last  child  of  a  large  family  is  the  most 
variable  in  natural  longevity.  When  he  survives  to  be  25  or  30  he 
usually  lives  to  a  great  age.  The  elder  children  live  more  uniformly 
to  a  moderate  age. 

The  reasons  for  these  differences  is  that  as  long  as  parents 
retain  their  full  health  and  vigor  the  older  they  are  the  longer  their 
children  will  live,  but  if  parents  lose  their  health  or  fail  in  bodily 
vigor,  then  the  later  children  will  live  a  less  length  of  time  than 
their  earlier  children.  In  this  examination  of  large  families  there 
were  found  many  cases  in  which  the  relationship  between  infant 
mortality  and  the  longevity  of  the  children  born  nearest  in  point 
of  time  to  those  who  died  in  infancy  showed  very  plainly  the  rise 
and  fall  in  health  of  parents,  principally  the  mother. 

REVIEW    OF   EVIDENCE. 

From  the  foregoing  facts  it  is  quite  evident  that  man,  within 
a  few  generations,  may,  if  he  chooses,  bring  about  a  delay  in  the 
arrival  at  puberty,  the  result  of  which  will  be  the  elimination  of 
the  least  intelligent  and  most  vicious,  the  raising  of  the  intellectual 


244  REPRODUCTION,    PUBERTY    AND    LONGEVITY. 

power  of  the  whole  community,  and  an  increase  in  the  average 

longevity. 

The  effect  of  delay  in  arriving  at  puberty  gives  more  time  for 
physical  development  and  adds  to  the  physical  as  well  as  to  the 
mental  powers.  I  have  previously  shown  that  some  of  the  finest  race 
horses  are  the  product  of  old  sires  and  dams,  and  we  know  that 
those  animals  which  are  slowest  in  arriving  at  puberty  are  the 
strongest  and  most  tenacious  of  life.  Among  the  races  of  men  we 
find  the  same  thing.  The  white  race  is  the  physical  superior  to  all 
others,  they  arrive  at  puberty  from  13  to  15  and  live  to  the  age  of 
70  or  80.  The  degraded  races  arrive  at  puberty  at  8  or  io,8  and 
rarely  live  beyond  the  age  of  45.9  Wherever  those  races  which, 
according  to  the  advice  of  Galton,  Haycraft  and  others,  begin 
reproduction  at  an  early  age  come  into  contact  with  the  late  matur- 
ing and  slowly  breeding  whites,  they  rapidly  fade  away.  We  see 
the  result  of  it  on  the  American  Continent,  the  Sandwich  Islands, 
New  Zealand,  Australia  and  elsewhere. 

TREATMENT  OF  THE  CHILD. 

Next  after  the  question  of  puberty,  or  perhaps  coming  before 
it  in  a  practical  sense,  in  the  process  of  adding  age  to  parents,  is 
the  problem  of  right  living.  While  the  principal  element  in  deter- 
mining the  age  of  puberty  is  undoubtedly  the  effect  of  its  inherit- 
ance, it  is  quite  true  that  climate,  surroundings  and  actions  have  a 
material  influence.  Stimulation  or  excitement  may  precipitate 
what  would  otherwise  be  delayed.  It  is  therefore  desirable  that 
a  child's  early  life  should  be  guided  into  proper  channels  so  that 
the  habits  it  forms  may  neutralize  the  bad  inheritance  and 


(8)  The  Human  Species,  p.  415. 

(9)  Comparative  Longevity,  p.  107. 


REPRODUCTION,    PUBERTY    AND    LONGEVITY.  245 

strengthen  the  good.  While  a  child  should  be  guided  it  should  not  be 
overguided.  If  a  child  is  to  grow  up  and  be  able  to  produce  healthy 
children  late  in  life,  it  needs  a  physical  development  more  than  it 
needs  a  mental  one.  This  physical  development  comes  best  through 
outdoors  romp  and  play,  and  much  more  in  the  mud  and  dirt 
than  is  at  all  agreeable  to  parents.  No  greater  error  can  be  made 
than  to  keep  a  child  aways  dressed  for  company  and  crowded  in 
its  studies.  Such  a  course  may  produce  a  show  animal,  but  it  is 
destruction  to  the  next '  generation.  Growth,  both  of  body  and 
mind,  is  a  slow  process,  and  a  forced  growth  ends  in  early  decay. 
This  is  but  another  illustration  of  the  fact  that  those  animals  which 
are  slowest  in  arriving  at  maturity  are  the  strongest. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

EFFECTS  OF  SEXUAL  REPRODUCTION. 

When  an  organ,  as  the  brain,  is  used  it  acquires  a  functional 
capacity  as  a  result  of  such  use,  and  the  functional  capacity  acquired 
is,  within  limits,  proportional  to  the  amount  of  use.  The  act  of 
using  an  organ  causes  the  tissues  of  the  organ  to  waste  away,  and 
the  rate  of  waste  is  proportional  to  the  intensity  of  use.  The  mate- 
rial wasted  away  by  use  is  replaced  by  other  material  furnished  by 
the  system  of  which  the  wasted  organ  is  a  part.  The  amount  of 
new  material  thus  supplied  is  determined  by  the  rate  of  waste. 
When  the  waste  is  rapid  in  consequence  of  intense  activity,  the  new 
material  not  only  equals,  but  slightly  exceeds  the  amount  wasted, 
the  surplus  of  new  material  being  for  the  purpose  of  meeting  similar 
conditions  of  unusual  activity.  When  the  waste  is  very  slow,  the 
amount  of  new  material  may,  and  generally  does,  not  equal  the 
amount  of  waste,  and  the  inactive  organ  diminishes  in  size  because 
of  its  inactivity.  In  this  process  of  waste  and  repair  the  new 
material  takes  on  a  functional  capacity  which  is  determined  by  the 
functional  activity  of  the  repaired  organ,  and  the  functional 
capacity  of  the  organ  as  a  whole  is  determined  by  the  activity  which 
existed  at  the  time  when  the  various  parts  were  built  up  by  original 
growth  or  by  previous  repair. 
WASTE!  AND  REPAIR  AS  THEY  PROBABLY  EXIST  IN  THE  GERM  CELLS. 

A  germ  cell  is  the  epitome  of  an  individual  of  the  species  to 
which  it  belongs.  Within  it  are  contained  all  of  the  elements  which 
characterize  the  adult,  and  it  is  from  these  elements  that  the  future 
adult  develops.  Such  cells  increase  in  number  by  a  process  of  cell 

246 


EFFECTS  OF  SEXUAL  REPRODUCTION.  247 

divisions,  and  in  these  divisions  each  cell  divides  its  entire  struc- 
ture into  two  equal  halves  so  that  each  half  contains  all  of  the 
original  elements  in  the  same  proportions  which  they  were  con- 
tained in  the  original  cell.  If  we  assume  that  a  cell  prior  to  divi- 
sion is  a  certain  individual,  and  after  division  one  of  its  halves  is 
the  same  individual,  then,  in  the  process  of  division,  this  individual 
is  subjected  to  conditions  of  waste  similar  to  those  in  an  adult,  and 
this  waste  must  be  repaired  by  the  addition  of  new  material.  The 
material  for  this  repair  is  furnished  by  the  adult  individual  within 
which  the  germ  cell  is  housed,  and  this  material  is  furnished  to  the 
cell  in  the  condition  in  which  the  adult  is  furnished  it  for  its  own 
use.  As  the  adult  is  furnishing  material  for  the  repair  of  all  of  its 
own  organs  at  the  time  when  it  is  called  upon  to  repair  the  elements 
of  these  organs  in  the  cell,  and  as  the  functional  condition  of  the 
repairing  material  is  determined  by  the  functional  activity  of  the 
adult  organs  to  be  repaired,  the  repairing  organs  included,  it  is 
evident  that  the  repaired  part  of  the  cell  is  built  up  of  material 
having  the  functional  capacity  demanded  by  the  functional  activity 
of  the  adult  organs.  The  original  part  of  the  cell  has  its  material 
of  a  functional  capacity  corresponding  to  conditions  as  they  existed 
at  previous  periods  of  repair,  and  as  the  new  material  is  not  set  off 
or  separated  from  the  older  material  but  is  intimately  united  with  it, 
the  functional  condition  of  the  material  of  a  cell  is  a  compound  of 
a  series  of  conditions  extending  an  indefinite  distance  into  the  past, 
the  potency  of  which  conditions  is  proportional  to  their  nearness  to 
the  present. 

HABITS   OF    ORGANS. 

This  resulting  condition  of  the  cell  is,  however,  somewhat  modi- 
fied by  what  in  different  departments  of  science  we  call  inertia, 
persistency  of  force,  stability  of  a  compound,  habit,  memory.  These 


248  EFFECTS  OF  SEXUAL  REPRODUCTION. 

expressions  all  imply  fixity  or  tendency  to  remain  in  the  condition 
which  exists  at  any  particular  time.  Thus,  when  an  organ  which 
has  for  a  long  time  been  dormant,  or  only  slightly  exercised,  is 
suddenly  exercised  violently,  the  system  responds  by  repairing  the 
waste  caused  by  this  violent  exercise,  but  it  cannot  repair  waste  so 
rapidly  nor  so  completely  as  it  can  after  the  exercise  has  been  con- 
tinued for  a  considerable  period  of  time.  The  result  of  this  is  that 
the  newly  exercised  organ  becomes  quickly  fatigued,  and  cannot 
continue  the  exercise  more  than  a  short  time.  After  the  system 
has  acquired  the  habit  of  repairing  waste  in  a  particular  organ, 
that  organ  may  be  exercised  for  a  much  longer  period  before 
fatigue  ensues.  Also  after  the  system  has  once  acquired  the  habit 
of  repairing  the  organ,  that  habit,  after  being  lost  by  temporary 
disuse,  is  reacquired  much  more  quickly  than  it  was  acquired  in  the 
first  place,  and  the  length  of  time  necessary  for  such  a  re-acquire- 
ment is  proportional  to  the  length  of  the  disuse. 

FUNCTIONAL   CONDITION    OF   CELLS. 

We  thus  see  that  a  germ  cell  is  made  up  of  material  which  is 
in  a  functional  condition  represented  by  a  series  of  repairs  follow- 
ing upon  a  series  of  cell  divisions,  the  quality  of  each  repair  of 
which  is  dependent  upon  the  coincident  repairs  going  on  in  the 
body  of  the  adult  within  whom  the  cell  is  housed.  As  the  func- 
tional condition  of  the  organs  of  the  adult  is  the  result  of  a  con- 
tinuous but  varying  process  of  repair,  it  will  be  evident  that  the 
functional  condition  of  these  organs  is  accurately  duplicated  by  a 
corresponding  functional  condition  of  the  elements  of  these  organs 
in  the  germ  cell. 

When  conception  takes  place  cell  divisions  result  in  an  aggre- 
gate of  somatic  cells  in  which  cell  growth  is  substituted  for  cell 


EFFECTS  OF  SEXUAL  REPRODUCTION.  249 

repair,  and  the  cells  enter  upon  a  quiescent  period  equivalent  to 
disuse,  during  which  the  functional  condition  of  the  material  of  the 
growing  cells  deteriorates.  For  the  brain  of  man  we  may  say  that 
this  disuse  continues  for  about  one  year,  after  which  come  those 
glimmerings  of  intelligence  that  indicate  the  gradual  revival  of  use. 
Use  increases  as  the  child  grows,  and  the  amount  of  use  necessary 
to  regain  the  functional  capacity  existing  in  the  cell  and  the  parent 
before  conception  depends  upon  how  great  was  the  original  func- 
tional condition  and  how  firmly  fixed  was  the  habit  of  repair. 
Ordinarily  it  would  be  the  amount  normally  occurring  in  an  indi- 
vidual prior  to  the  period  of  complete  maturity,  but  might  be  more 
or  less  according  to  the  degree  of  activity. 

REPRODUCTION  AS  TEMPORARY  DISUSE. 

We  may  therefore  say  that  in  the  chain  of  life  reproduction  is 
temporary  disuse  existing  for  a  period  of  a  year  and  recurring  at 
irregular  intervals,  the  length  of  which  intervals  is  the  time  elapsing 
between  generations.  Following  each  period  of  disuse  there  is  a 
period  of  slight  use  extending  through  several  years  of  the  child's 
life.  Under  such  conditions  it  will  be  evident  that  the  extent  to 
which  an  organ  like  the  brain  may  be  developed  will  depend  upon 
the  ratio  of  the  length  of  the  periods  of  use  to  the  length  of  the 
periods  of  disuse,  and  will  be  greatest  when  the  variable  period  of 
use  is  greatest.  The  circumstances  are  very  similar  to  what  would 
exist  if  a  man  should  exercise  his  arms  for  a  few  months  and  then 
carry  them  done  up  in  a  plaster  mold  for  thirty  days,  and  repeat 
these  operations  alternately  in  unending  series.  If  the  period  in 
the  plaster  mold  were  always  thirty  days,  evidently  the  extent  to 
which  he  might  develop  his  arms  by  exercise  would  be  determined 
by  the  distance  between  the  plaster  periods.  When  this  distance 


250  EFFECTS  OF  SEXUAL  REPRODUCTION. 

becomes  a  fixed  quantity  then  there  is  a  definite  limit  to  the  amount 
of  development,  extending  the  distance  gives  opportunity  for  evolu- 
tion, reducing  it  results  in  degeneracy. 

IMMATURITY. 

It  is  probable  that  sexual  excesses  induce  rapid  divisions  of  the 
germ  cells,  and  that  when  rapid  divisions  occur,  they  take  place 
before  the  previously  divided  cells  have  had  time  to  regain  their 
full  size  and  development.  The  consequence  of  such  an  action 
would,  of  course,  be  germ  cells  of  reduced  size  and  immature  char- 
acter, from  the  germ  standpoint. 

Now  it  has  been  shown,  in  the  vegetable  kingdom,1  that  if 
immature  seeds  (i.  e.,  unripe  seeds  which  do  not  weigh  more  than 
about  two-thirds  as  much  as  those  which  are  fully  ripe)  be  planted, 
they  germinate  readily,  but  the  plantlets  lack  vigor  and  the  fruit 
from  them  is  smaller  and  less  firm.  What  the  fruit  from  such 
plants  lack  in  size  they  usually  make  up  in  numbers,  and  fruit 
produced  in  this  way  matures  somewhat  earlier  than  that  produced 
by  the  use  of  fully  ripe  seeds.  By  continuing  the  use  of  immature 
seeds  for  several  generations,  the  characters  of  reduced  size  and 
vigor,  early  development  and  tendency  toward  fecundity  are  accen- 
tuated. 

IMMATURE   GERM    CELLS. 

Applying  this  fact  to  the  propagation  of  animals  from  imma- 
ture germ  cells,  we  have  a  clearer  view  of  why  sexual  excesses 
induce  early  puberty  and  reduce  bodily  vigor.  Contrariwise,  when 
we  observe  these  characters  in  children  we  may  infer  propagation 
from  immature  and  dwarfed  germ  cells.  The  bodily  weakness 
observed  in  the  children  of  young,  or  comparatively  young,  parents 
(i)  Bailey,  Plant-Breeding,  p.  103. 


EFFECTS    OF    SEXUAL    REPRODUCTION.  251 

should  not  be  confounded  with  that  existing  in  children  of  very  old 
parents,  because  the  latter  arises  from  another  cause,  viz.,  the 
weakness  existing  in  the  parent  due  to  old  age  and  physical  decay. 
In  the  one  case  the  weakness  exists  in  both  body  and  mind,  in  the 
other  case  the  body  is  weak  but  the  mind  is  strong.  The  first  has 
its  cause  in  immature  germ  cells;  the  second  in  the  inherited  inert- 
ness of  the  repairing  organs  of  the  body,  and  is  sometimes  desig- 
nated as  malnutrition. 

If  propagation  takes  place  before  the  bodily  growth  of  the 
parent  is  fully  completed,  and  there  be  no  immaturity  of  the  germ 
cells  arising  from  too  rapid  cell  divisions,  then  there  is  a  tendency 
toward  increased  bodily  size  of  the  offspring.  This  is  illustrated  in 
the  case  of  sheep  by  the  largest  lambs  being  produced  by  rams  not 
fully  grown.2  The  explanation  of  this  is  that  the  repairing  organs  of 
the  parent  being  functionally  active  in  that  condition  which  pro- 
duces bodily  growth,  they  produce  the  same  condition  in  the  repair- 
ing of  the  germ  cells  after  their  divisions. 

BRAIN   SIZE   AND   BRAIN    POWER. 

While  brain  power  is,  to  a  considerable  extent,  dependent  upon 
brain  size,  yet  it  is  well  known  that  the  relative  brain  power  of  two 
persons  cannot  be  determined  by  measurements  of  their  cranial 
capacities.  A  person  with  a  comparatively  small  brain  is  very 
often  greatly  superior  to  a  person  with  a  much  larger  brain.  This 
discrepancy  may  be  understood  by  comparing  the  causes  of  brain 
size  and  brain  power.  It  has  been  shown  that  brain  activity  causes 
the  brain  growth  to  continue  up  to  the  age  of  twenty-five  or  thirty, 
while  a  lack  of  activity  will  cause  brain  growth  to  cease  at  about 
twenty.  If  reproduction  take  place  during  the  latter  part  of  brain 
(2)  Day,  The  Horse,  p.  203. 


252  EFFECTS  OF  SEXUAL  REPRODUCTION. 

growth  due  to  a  college  education,  then  the  offspring  would  have 
an  unusual  increase  of  brain  size,  which  would  be  transmitted  to 
the  next  generation.  If  this  last  transmission  occurs  at  an  early 
age  we  would  have  a  large  brain  with  small  brain  power.  On 
the  other  hand,  if  a  person  whose  brain  ceased  to  grow  at  the  age 
of  twenty  and  who  accumulated  considerable  brain  power  late  in 
life  after  the  brain  had  ceased  to  grow,  should  have  a  child  in 
mature  years,  then  this  child  would  inherit  considerable  mental 
power  and  relatively  small  cranial  capacity.  We  may  see  an  illus- 
tration of  this  in  the  case  of  the  Incas,  whose  cranial  capacity  was 
small,  but  who  were  comparatively  high  in  the  scale  of  civilization. 
The  education  of  their  children  was  limited  to  that  of  their  fathers, 
but  their  marriageable  age  did  not  come  till  from  24  to  26.3 

INHERITANCE  AT  CERTAIN  AGES. 

Darwin  has  shown  that  characters  which  appear  at  certain  ages 
in  the  parent  tend  to  reappear  in  the  offspring  at  corresponding 
ages,  and  he  adds  the  statement  that  when  there  are  deviations 
from  this  rule  the  tendency  appears  to  be  for  them  to  occur  earlier 
rather  than  later  in  the  offspring.  The  rule  of  uniformity  that 
causes  the  reappearance  of  characters  in  offspring  at  ages  corre- 
sponding to  those  in  which  they  appeared  in  the  parent,  relates  to 
those  characters  which  are  not  affected  by  use  and  disuse,  while 
characters  which  are  stimulated  and  developed  by  long  continued 
functional  activity  appear  earlier  and  characters  which  are  degen- 
erated by  disuse  appear  later.  The  general  rule  relating  to  func- 
tionally developed  characters  appears  to  be  that  each  fertilized  germ 
starts  upon  its  career  of  development  with  an  initial  velocity  which 
would  bring  it,  at  the  normal  age  of  physical  maturity,  to  a  con- 
(3)  Latourneau,  Evolution  of  Marriage,  p.  174. 


EFFECTS    OF    SEXUAL   REPRODUCTION.  253 

dition  corresponding  to  the  condition  of  its  parents  at  the  time  of 
conception.  This  initial  velocity  is  accelerated  or  retarded  by  each 
individual  according  as  his  functional  activity  is  greater  or  less 
than  that  of  his  immediately  preceding  ancestors. 

TIME  OF  APPEARANCE  OF   CHARACTERS   VARIED  BY   AGE  AT   WHICH 
REPRODUCTION  OCCURS. 

Applying  this  to  the  brain  of  man  and  assuming  that  the  func- 
tional activity  be  uniform  from  generation  to  generation,  then,  if 
the  average  age  of  reproduction  coincided  with  the  normal  age  of 
maturity  (which  may  be  assumed  to  be  about  30  years  for  man), 
the  race  would  neither  advance  nor  recede,  but  remain  stationary. 
If,  in  a  particular  instance,  the  age  of  reproduction  for  a  healthy 
individual  be  advanced  from  30  to  50,  and  this  advance  in  age  be 
accompanied  by  a  functional  activity  sufficient  to  cause  this  indi- 
vidual's brain  at  the  age  of  50  to  be  of  greater  functional  capacity 
than  it  was  at  the  age  of  30,  then  the  offspring,  following  the  same 
grade  of  activity  that  its  parent  followed,  would,  at  the  age  of  30, 
have  a  functional  capacity  approximately  equal  to  that  its  parent 
had  at  the  age  of  50.  If  the  act  of  reproduction  occurs  when  the 
parent  is  15  instead  of  50,  then  the  rate  of  development  of  the 
offspring  would  be  slower  and,  at  the  age  of  30,  he  would  be  devel- 
oped only  about  as  far  as  his  parent  was  at  the  age  of  15.  What 
the  offspring  is  at  the  age  of  maturity,  therefore,  depends  upon  the 
amount  the  parent  has  developed  at  the  time  of  conception.  The 
amount  of  this  development  depends,  of  course,  upon  the  degree 
of  functional  activity  and  the  length  of  time  the  functional  activity 
is  continued.  As  the  parent  is  itself  an  offspring  and  is  in  like 
measure  dependent  upon  its  parents,  it  is  evident  that  each  person's 
inheritance  is  the  product  of  the  average  ancestral  activity  and  the 
average  length  of  time  this  activity  continued  for  each  ancestor. 


254  EFFECTS   OF   SEXUAL   REPRODUCTION. 

PERSISTENCY   OF   ADVANCED   AND   RETROGRADE   STEPS. 

If  a  son  conceived  by  a  functionally  active  parent  when  at  the  age 
of  50  reverts  to  the  normal  condition  and  himself  produces  a  son 
when  at  the  age  of  30,  this  son  in  the  third  generation  will  be,  like 
the  one  in  the  second  generation,  an  advance  upon  the  first  but  not 
on  the  second,  and  the  same  advance  will  be  maintained  from  gen- 
eration to  generation.  Thus  a  single  step  in  advance  will  constitute 
a  step  in  advance  through  succeeding  generations,  and  a  single 
retrograde  step  will  cause  the  retrograde  condition  to  be  trans- 
mitted through  an  indefinite  number  of  generations.  As,  however, 
each  individual  is  the  product,  not  of  one  parent  but  of  two,  each 
step  in  one  direction  will  be  divided  among  a  number  of  individuals 
or  neutralized  by  a  step  in  the  opposite  direction  unless  two  steps 
in  the  same  direction  happen  to  unite. 

INHERITANCE  BY  SEX. 

The  rule  relating  to  this  appears  to  apply  to  all  characters  which 
appear  in  the  individual  after  the  age  of  puberty,  irrespective  of 
whether  they  arise  congenitally  or  are  the  result  of  development 
clue  to  voluntary  actions  of  ancestors.  By  characters  which  arise 
congenitally  I  mean  characters  such  as  the  beard  on  man,  orna- 
mental plumage  on  birds,  and  all  of  those  forms  which  are  in  no 
way  connected  with  the  volition  of  the  individual.  Such  characters 
have  been  pretty  fully  dealt  with  by  Darwin  and  need  not  be  further 
referred  to. 

Acquired  characters  are  those  which  are  enlarged,  developed 
and  strengthened  by  functional  activity,  or  are  degenerated  by  the 
lack  of  such  activity.  The  amount  of  such  development  or  degen- 
eracy is  measured  by  the  time  during  which  the  process  continues, 


EFFECTS  OF  SEXUAL  REPRODUCTION.  255 

and  that  part  which  accumulates  after  the  age  of  puberty  tends  to 
be  inherited  by  sex.  In  the  human  species  we  find  the  brain  of  man 
larger  and  stronger  than  that  of  woman,  and  we  can  find  the  ex- 
planation in  the  fact  that  men  are  mentally  more  active  than  women, 
and  that  fathers  average  three  or  four  years  older  than  mothers. 
From  the  further  fact  that  the  procreative  powers  of  men  extend 
to  a  later  age  than  they  do  with  women,  we  may  conclude  that  by 
no  possibility  can  the  mental  powers  of  women  overtake  those  of 
men.  Certain  individual  women  will  of  course  exceed  certain  indi- 
vidual men,  but  there  will  always  be  certain  men  who  will  exceed 
any  possible  women. 

TRANSFERENCE  OF  SEXUALLY  DEVELOPED  CHARACTERS  TO  THE  OP- 
POSITE SEX. 

While  characters  developed  in  the  adult  by  functional  activity 
are  transmitted  principally,  if  not  exclusively,  to  offspring  of  the 
same  sex,  there  is  a  process  by  which  such  sexually  developed  char- 
acters are  gradually  transferred  to  individuals  of  the  opposite  sex. 
Thus,  the  combined  result  of  great  functional  activity  and  late  re- 
production produce  an  individual  who  starts  his  development  with 
a  great  initial  velocity  and  consequently  reaches,  before  puberty,  a 
greater  development  than  his  father  reached  at  that  period  of  his 
life.  Whatever  is  thus  developed  in  the  new  individual  before 
puberty  by  reason  of  greater  initial  velocity,  is  transmitted  alike  to 
both  sexes  of  the  next  generation,  and  whatever  is  developed  after 
puberty  is  transmitted  to  the  same  sex.  If  this  new  individual  of 
the  second  generation  should  also  accumulate  the  result  of  much 
use  before  reproducing,  then  the  descendant  in  the  third  genera- 
tion would  develop  with  still  greater  rapidity  and  consequently 
would  transmit  a  greater  amount  to  the  opposite  sex  in  the  fourth 
generation. 


256  EFFECTS    OF    SEXUAL    REPRODUCTION. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  sexually  developed  characters  trans- 
ferred from  one  sex  to  the  other  are  those  characters  which  are 
functionally  developed,  and  that  the  transference  is  not  from  an 
individual  of  one  sex  in  one  generation  to  an  individual  of  the 
opposite  sex  in  the  second  generation,  but  through  an  individual 
of  the  same  sex  in  the  second  generation  to  one  of  the  opposite  sex 
in  the  third  generation. 

Good  examples  of  this  transference  of  acquired  development  to 
the  opposite  sex  in  the  third  generation  are  found  in  the  pedigrees 
of  trotting  horses.  The  highly  trained  stallion  George  Wilkes  does 
not  appear  as  the  sire  of  any  of  the  very  fast  mares,  but  he  appears 
ten  times  as  the  sire's  sire  and  as  many  more  times  as  the  sire's 
grandsire.  For  mares,  the  grandsires  and  great-grandsires  are 
almost  as  old  as  they  are  for  stallions.4 


(4)     This  matter  is  examined    at  length   in   articles   on    "The    Origin  of 
Speed,"  in  "The  Horseman,"  Chicago,  of  Dec.  2,   1902,  and  Jan.  13,  1903. 


BEETHOVEN    [31] 


MOZART  [37] 


RUBENS  [49? 


REMBRANDT   [40] 


HANDEL  [63] 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

MENTAL  AND  PHYSICAL  RESULTS. 

SECONDARY  SEXUAL  CHARACTERS  AND  INTELLIGENCE. 

There  is  a  general  impression  that  each  individual  starts  out 
in  life  destined  to  follow  a  prescribed  path  in  its  development,  and 
that  this  path  is  practically  identical  with  that  followed  by  its 
parents.  Because  the  son  of  a  beardless  youth  in  due  time  develops 
a  beard  of  his  own,  it  is  assumed  that  this  same  son  should  also 
develop  the  same  mental  powers  and  characteristics  which  his  father 
developed,  and  at  the  same  periods  of  his  life. 

There  are  in  this  assumption  two  sources  of  error;  first,  it  pre- 
sumes a  relationship  between  a  functionless  organ  and  the  func- 
tional condition  of  a  very  different  organ ;  and  second,  it  presumes 
that  because  the  son  of  a  beardless  youth  produces  a  beard  of  his 
own,  hence,  a  successive  series  of  sons  of  beardless  youths  will 
continue  to  produce  beards  to  the  same  extent  that  sons  of  bearded 
men  would. 

Functional  power,  in  the  brain  or  in  any  other  functioning 
organ,  is  a  condition  into  which  the  organ  is  placed  as  the  result 
of  long  continued  use.  In  youth  this  functional  power  is  at  a  low 
stage  because  the  greater  portion  of  the  energy  of  growth  is  con- 
sumed in  adding  bulk  and  little  can  be  spared  for  placing  the  in- 
creased material  into  a  functional  condition. 

ORGANS  DURING  EMBRYONIC  STAGE. 

The  cells  from  which  a  new  being  grows  are  built  up  of  mate- 
rial having  the  functional  condition  of  the  parents  at  the  time  of 

257 


258  MENTAL    AND    PHYSICAL    RESULTS. 

conception,  and  the  new  material  added  tends  to  take  on  the  con- 
ditions pre-existing  in  the  original  cells.  From  the  time  of  con- 
ception, however,  the  cells  and  the  added  material  exist  in  a  state 
of  biological  disuse,  which  disuse  is  gradually  changed  into  use  at 
some  period  after  birth  and  before  maturity.  The  functional  con- 
dition, therefore,  first  declines  and  afterwards  rises,  and  the  dis- 
tance it  falls  below  the  average  condition  of  the  adult  of  the  race 
depends  upon  the  point  at  which  it  started  out  at  the  time  of  con- 
ception. As  the  periods  of  gestation  and  of  infancy  represent  a 
definite  period  of  time  during  which  disuse  exists,  it  is  evident  that 
the  functional  power  will  drop  off  to  a  nearly  or  quite  constant 
amount  and  will  be  lowest  when  the  starting  point  is  lowest.  As 
a  consequence  of  this  the  son  of  a  beardless  youth  starts  use  from 
a  very  low  point,  and  as  he  does  not  have  an  infinite  length  of  time 
in  which  his  organs  can  grow  and  be  gradually  changed  into  the 
functioning  condition,  he  cannot  rise  as  high  as  can  some  other 
son  who  starts  on  a  higher  plane. 

THE  BEARD   AND  SEXUAL  MATURITY. 

In  the  case  of  the  beard  we  have  an  organ  which  is  not  subject 
to  the  law  of  use  and  disuse,  and  consequently  it  does  not  lose  dur- 
ing gestation  and  infancy  some  quality  which  it  had  at  the  time  of 
conception.  It  does,  however,  lose  in  another  way  by  reason  of 
early  reproduction,  as  we  see  in  the  case  of  the  lower  races  of  men 
who  reproduce  early  and  are  beardless.  Going  over  Europe  from 
South  to  North  we  have  a  regular  gradation  of  later  and  later 
reproduction,  and  accompanying  this  we  have  just  as  regular  an 
increase  of  beard  until  we  come  to  the  Eskimos,  who  reproduce 
early  and  are  beardless.  Among  the  lower  races,  the  Australian 
is  the  only  one  strongly  bearded,  and  among  these  we  find  a  low 


MENTAL   AND    PHYSICAL   RESULTS.  259 

grade  of  mental  activity,  and  the  most  marked  difference  between 
the  ages  of  the  fathers  and  mothers.  With  the  Arabs,  Turks,  and 
the  higher  casts  of  the  Hindus,  we  also  have  classes  of  bearded 
men  who  habitually  have  wives  much  younger  than  themselves. 

While  the  beard  is  not  of  itself  a  functioning  character,  and 
consequently  is  not  influenced  by  use  or  disuse,  it  grows  upon  the 
face  and  is  dependent  upon  sexual  maturity,  as  we  see  from  the 
fact  that  a  eunuch  raises  little  or  no  beard.  Our  beardless  boy- 
father  is  a  sexually  immature  person,  and  while  he  transmits  sexual 
intensity,  he  also  transmits  sexual  immaturity,  and  in  a  few  gen- 
erations this  sexual  immaturity  will  exhibit  itself  by  a  lack  of  that 
character  which  is  developed  from  maturity. 

SECONDARY  SEXUAL  CHARACTERS  IN  LOWER  ANIMALS. 

This  illustration  of  the  beard  on  a  man  is  typical  of  a  long  line 
of  secondary  sexual  characters  which  appear  in  the  lower  animals. 
Darwin  has  pointed  out  that  polygamous  animals  exhibit  the  greater 
number  and  most  marked  of  secondary  sexual  characters,  and  he 
ascribes  their  existence  to  selection.  While  admitting  that  perhaps 
selection  plays  a  part  in  this  matter,  I  feel  confident  that  the  abso- 
lute or  relative  age  of  the  male  plays  a  more  important  part.  We 
know  that  as  long  as  the  male  lives  the  sexual  characteristics 
become  more  and  more  pronounced,  and  we  also  know  that  the 
polygamous  male  who  is  the  head  of  a  considerable  harem  is  a 
vigorous  old  male,  the  younger  males  being  either  killed  or  driven 
away.  The  younger  females  are  under  no  such  disadvantages,  and 
as  a  consequence  the  disparity  in  age  between  the  male  and  the 
female  is  very  marked.  With  monogamous  animals  there  is  no 
reason  why  the  average  age  of  males  and  females  should  differ 
much,  and  we  find  little  difference  between  the  sexes,  though 


260  MENTAL    AND    PHYSICAL    RESULTS. 

Darwin  uses  these  animals  for  the  greater  number  of  his  illustrations 
of  sexual  selection.  These  phenomena  are  explainable  only  on  the 
theory  of  use-inheritance,  and  are  simply  other  illustrations  of  the 
previously  demonstrated  fact  that  the  offspring  tend  to  be  repro- 
ductions of  the  parents  as  they  existed  at  the  time  of  conception, 
and  not  as  they  existed  at  some  previous  time  or  will  exist  at  some 
future  time. 

RELATION  OF  MENTAL  POWER  TO   MENTAL  APTITUDE. 

It  has  been  shown  that  mental  power  is  the  product  of  a  series 
of  slowly  moving  generations,  and  that  mental  aptitude  is  the 
product  of  a  single  generation,  the  quality  of  which  is  determined 
to  a  considerable  extent  by  the  age  at  which  reproduction  takes 
place.  Age,  however,  is  not  the  controlling  factor  in  mental  apti- 
tudes, but  an  approximate  method  of  determining  the  condition 
of  the  parent  at  the  time  of  conception.  Whatever  has  been  in- 
tensely interesting  to  the  parents  during  a  few  years  immediately 
preceding  the  conception  and  has  influenced  their  actions  and  molded 
their  characters,  will  be  transmitted  to  the  offspring  and  will  mold 
his  character  to  a  large  extent  throughout  life.  As  different  things 
influence  the  same  parent  in  different  degrees  at  different  periods 
of  life,  the  actual  influence  transmitted  to  a  child  is  often  lost  sight 
of  when  he  is  measured  in  the  light  of  influences  existing  at  some 
later  period  in  the  life  of  the  parent.  A  man  who  has  become 
famous  as  a  statesman  or  a  mathematician  may  have  been,  at  an 
earlier  period  in  his  life,  an  enthusiast  over  art  or  literature.  A 
son  conceived  at  this  earlier  period  exhibits  an  inclination  toward 
these  pursuits,  and  the  world,  not  knowing  these  earlier  influences, 
wonders  because  the  son  does  not  inherit  those  traits  which  made 
the  father  famous. 


MENTAL    AND    PHYSICAL    RESULTS.  26 1 

As  compared  to  philosophical  reasoning,  art,  literature,  and 
music  may  be  considered  as  less  profoundly  intellectual,  still  great 
intellectual  power  is  essential  to  eminence  in  any  of  these  lines. 
We  see  this  illustrated  in  the  fact  that  the  greatest  artists,  poets 
and  musicians  either  themselves  have  pretty  high  birth-ranks,  or 
are  the  sons  of  men  having  high  birth-ranks.  In  the  case  of  Byron 
the  high  birth-rank  belongs  to  the  grandfather,  as  is  also  the  case 
of  Emerson  and  Beethoven.  With  Hawthorne  and  Swift  we  find 
it  in  both  father  and  grandfather.  In  any  case  the  intellectual 
power  is  first  built  up  by  one  or  more  cases  of  late  reproduction, 
and  then  the  peculiar  mental  aptitude  is  produced  by  the  proper 
conditions. 

MENTAL  APTITUDES  INFLUENCED  BY  OPPOSITE  SEX. 

Mental  power  being  the  result  of  late  development  and  the 
product  of  a  series  of  generations,  appears  to  be  transmitted  prin- 
cipally by  sex.  This  does  not  appear  to  be  the  case  with  mental 
aptitudes  which  are  the  product  of  single  generation,  and  seem 
to  be  largely  influenced  by  the  opposite  sex.  In  the  case  of  Burns, 
Chatterton,  Goethe  and  Schiller  we  have  comparatively  old  fathers, 
and  mothers  about  19  or  20  years  of  age.  In  Greece,  which  was 
noted  for  its  development  of  art  and  literature,  we  have  the  same 
characteristics  of  old  fathers  and  young  mothers.  According  to 
traditions,  Homer  was  produced  in  this  way.  As  it  is  impossible 
that  all  Greek  mothers  should  have  been  young,  it  is  probable  that 
some  of  the  older  ones  were  the  mothers  of  the  Greek  philosophers. 
My  statistics  in  this  matter  are,  however,  so  meager  that  I  can 
throw  this  out  only  as  conjecture.  In  the  case  of  the  philosopher 
Locke  we  find  the  mother  nearly  ten  years  older  than  the  father, 
which  is  in  sharp  contrast  with  the  poets  previously  mentioned. 


262  MENTAL    AND    PHYSICAL    RESULTS. 

In  the  case  of  Shakespeare  we  have  both  parents  between  the  ages 
of  thirty  and  forty  and  both  grandfathers  probably  (almost  cer- 
tainly) over  45. 

STERILITY. 

Sterility  is  of  two  kinds,  natural  and  acquired.  Natural  ster- 
ility may  be  divided  into  two  classes,  that  which  is  congenital  and 
consequently  arises  from  causes  at  present  unknown,  and  that 
which  arises  from  the  circumstances  or  surroundings  of  life.  Ac- 
quired sterility  may  also  be  divided  into  two  classes,  that  which 
has  its  origin  in  a  vicious  or  unnatural  life,  and  that  which  is 
deliberately  produced  by  the  individuals  themselves. 

Congenital  sterility  I  shall  not  discuss  because  I  can  throw  no 
new  light  on  the  subject.  I  may  remark,  however,  that  it  is  prob- 
ably the  rarest  of  all  kinds.  Although  "inherited  sterility"  is  a 
contradiction  of  terms,  and  consequently  an  absurdity,  there  is  such 
a  thing  as  inheriting  a  tendency  toward  sterility,  which  tendency 
may  become,  or  develop  into,  actual  sterility,  and  thus  become  con- 
genital sterility.  That  this  semi-sterility  is  hereditary  is  well  shown 
by  Mr.  Day  in  his  excellent  work  "The  Horse."  He  mentions  the 
cases  of  many  mares  who  would  slip  or  be  sterile  through  many 
seasons,  and  shows  that  the  few  progeny  that  they  did  have  were 
afflicted  with  the  same  trouble.  Mr.  Galton,  in  his  "Hereditary 
Genius,"  show  that  heiresses  are  more  frequently  sterile  than  other 
women,  and  as  a  consequence  have  caused  the  extinction  of  a  great 
many  English  families.  The  fact  that  sterility  causes  such  extinc- 
tion makes  it  its  own  remedy,  and  whatever  may  be  its  cause,  I 
assume  that  it  is  about  as  desirable  as  leprosy. 

CIVILIZATION    AND   STERILITY. 

That  other  form  of  natural  sterility  finds  its  cause  in  the  ad- 
vancing stages  of  civilized  society,  and  perhaps  may  be  best  illus- 


MENTAL   AND    PHYSICAL   RESULTS.  263 

trated  from  animals.  In  a  state  of  nature,  sterility  is  extremely 
rare,  nearly  all  individuals  being  perfectly  fertile.  Many  animals 
which  are  perfectly  fertile  in  a  state  of  nature  become  sterile  when 
kept  in  captivity  or  when  only  kept  as  pets.  Such  sterility  arises 
from  the  fact  that  the  animals  are  placed  in  an  unnatural  condi- 
tion, and  not  being  capable  of  adapting  themselves  to  circum- 
stances, their  reproductive  organs  are  injuriously  affected,  though 
they  are  otherwise  perfectly  healthy.  In  the  early  history  of  the 
human  race,  and  during  many  ages,  men  and  women  lived  out- 
doors and  roamed  freely  through  the  woods.  In  modern  civiliza- 
tion they  are  crowded  into  cities  and  spend  much  time  in  circum- 
stances wholly  unlike  those  to  which  their  ancestors  were  exposed. 
As  a  consequence  many  women  become  sterile  or  semi-sterile,  and 
when  we  see  such  sterility  it  is  very  plain  that  they  were  advanced 
in  civilization  before  they  were  prepared  for  it.  In  other  words, 
the  majority  of  sterile  or  semi-sterile  women  are  not  proper  mem- 
bers of  the  circles  in  which  they  move,  but  belong  in  a  less  advanced 
civilization. 

That  form  of  acquired  sterility  which  arises  from  a  vicious  or 
unnatural  life  is  so  closely  allied  to  that  other  form  just  described 
that  it  is  not  always  possible  to  distinguish  between  the  two.  Prop- 
erly speaking  it  arises  in  individuals  who  are  perfectly  adapted  to 
live  in  the  most  advanced  state  of  society,  but  who  misuse  the 
opportunities  placed  in  their  way  and  live  a  kind  of  a  life  not  at  all 
necessary  to  higher  civilization.  If  not  actually  vicious  they  cer- 
tainly are  reckless,  and  lack  of  good  judgment  leads  them  into  dis- 
sipations that  result  in  sterility  or  semi-sterility. 

PREMEDITATED  STERILITY. 

The  last  form  of  sterility,  that  which  results  from  premeditated 
acts,  becomes  more  common  as  the  density  of  the  population  in- 


264  MENTAL   AND   PHYSICAL   RESULTS. 

creases.  In  many  cases  it  comes  from  a  desire  to  stay  "in  society," 
and  to  avoid  the  cares  and  responsibilities  of  parenthood.  In  other 
cases  there  are  other  causes  which  need  not  be  dilated  upon.  It 
would  seem  as  if  this  form  of  sterility  should  receive  the  strongest 
condemnation,  but  I  am  not  disposed  to  look  at  the  matter  in  that 
light.  Persons  who  deliberately  shirk  responsibility  are  not  a 
desirable  kind,  and  the  world  will  not  be  improved  by  perpetuating 
them.  As  to  other  causes,  I  may  remark  that  each  individual 
knows  something  about  himself  that  the  world  at  large  does  not 
know,  and  when  we  see  a  person  who  deliberately  avoids  becoming 
a  parent  I  know  of  no  reason  why  we  should  not  take  such  a  person 
at  his  own  estimate  and  conclude  that  he  is  not  as  good  stock  as  he 
appears,  and  that  the  sooner  that  the  particular  breed  is  eliminated 
the  better. 

FAMILY  LIMITED  BY   SOCIAL   CONDITIONS. 

It  is  doubtless  true  that  the  increasing  complexity  of  society 
places  a  premium  on  sterility  and  a  punishment  upon  fertility.  Not 
only  is  there  the  added  burden  of  more  mouths  to  feed  and  backs 
to  clothe,  but  landlords  discriminate  agains  tenants  having  children, 
and  there  is,  in  our  large  cities,  a  class  of  social  parvenus 
who  hold  up  their  hands  in  holy  horror  at  a  family  of  more  than 
two  or  three.  Arguments  in  favor  of  larger  families  are  without 
avail,  and  plans  of  offering  premiums  to  mothers  are  not  prac- 
ticable. There  is,  however,  a  plan  that  will  not  only  meet  the  diffi- 
culty, but  is  simple  justice  to  those  who  undertake  the  cares  and 
responsibilities  of  rearing  our  future  citizens.  In  every  represen- 
tative government,  each  person  is  presumed  to  have  a  voice  in 
selecting  its  legislators,  and  consequently  in  making  the  laws  which 
govern  the  community  in  which  he  lives.  In  practice  this  is  re- 


MENTAL    AND    PHYSICAL    RESULTS.  265 

stricted  to  men  over  21  years  of  age,  though  each  individual  is  just 
as  vitally  interested  in  good  government  as  are  these  men. 

PARENTAL  RESPONSIBILITY  AND  THE   FRANCHISE. 

As  each  man  is  the  guardian  of  his  minor  children  and  is  re- 
sponsible that  they  are  properly  cared  for,  clothed,  fed  and  educated, 
so  that  they  may  in  turn  become  good  citizens,  it  is  no  more  than 
justice  to  such  fathers  and  such  children  that  the  guardian  have  an 
extra  vote  for  each  minor  child  under  his  care.  It  is  quite  certain 
that  the  father  of  a  family  is  more  vitally  interested  in  a  good  gov- 
ernment than  is  the  bachelor  who  has  no  responsibilities  beyond 
himself.  It  is  therefore  no  more  than  simple  justice  that  the  voice 
in  the  government  be  proportional  to  the  amount  of  interest.  Under 
such  a  condition  the  artificial  discrimination  against  a  parent  aris- 
ing from  the  increasing  complexity  of  modern  civilization  would  be 
counteracted  by  a  political  discrimination  in  his  favor.  Many  a 
parent,  who  under  the  present  conditions  struggles  with  poverty 
and  adversity,  would,  under  such  a  system,  obtain  political  favors 
which  would  enable  him  to  rear  and  educate  his  children  much 
better  than  is  now  possible.  With  increased  opportunities  arising 
from  political  justice  to  parents,  there  would  be  a  check  on  that 
form  of  premeditated  sterility  that  arises  from  pure  desperation  at 
inability  to  provide  for  children  already  produced. 

SIZE  OF  FAMILY  INFLUENCED  BY  BIRTH-RANKS  OF  PARENTS. 

In  this  connection  I  may  remark  that  it  is  the  most  common  of 
circumstances  in  the  present  state  of  society  for  parents,  after  one 
or  two  children  are  born,  to  be  very  careful  that  there  are  no  more. 
This  appears  to  be  very  much  a  case  of  "discretion,"  and  the  more 
intelligent  persons  are  usually  the  more  discrete.  We  see  this  illus- 
trated by  the  fact  that  the  more  advanced  portions  of  society  usually 


266  MENTAL    AND    PHYSICAL    RESULTS. 

have  small  families,  while  the  more  ignorant  and  lower  classes  com- 
monly have  large  families.  To  learn  to  what  extent  this  practice 
has  existed  in  the  past  and  what  effect  birth-ranks  have  upon  the 
subject  I  tabulated  two  hundred  New  England  families,  in  one  hun- 
dred of  which  the  fathers  had  birth-ranks  of  [30]  or  less,  and  in  the 
other  hundred  the  fathers  had  birth-ranks  of  [40]  or  more.  The 
fathers  having  the  lower  birth-ranks  had  568  children,  while  the 
fathers  having  the  higher  birth-ranks  had  only  309  children.  From 
what  has  been  previously  said  in  regard  to  the  age  of  parents  at  the 
time  their  children  are  born,  it  is  easily  seen  that  this  is  a  process  of 
eliminating  the  best  and  selecting  the  poorest  for  preservation.  It 
is  only  necessary  for  the  process  to  be  carried  to  extremes  to  end  in 
degeneracy.  That  it  has  not  led  to  degeneracy  is  due  partly  to  the 
later  age  at  which  reproduction  begins  and  partly  to  the  increased 
amount  of  mental  activity  required  of  each  individual  before  the 
age  of  reproduction. 

QUANTITY  AND  QUALITY  IN   INCREASE  OF  POPULATION. 

Much  stress  has  been  laid  by  Galton  and  others  on  the  necessity 
for  early  reproduction  as  the  only  means  of  causing  the  population 
to  increase,  but  much  more  is  made  of  this  than  there  is  need  of. 
If  the  births  per  annum  are  25  or  more  per  1,000,  the  number  is 
sufficient  to  cause  the  population  to  increase,  because  the  death  rate 
is  some  number  less  than  this.  As  far  as  mere  numbers  go,  it  is 
immaterial  whether  this  25  per  1,000  is  produced  by  young  parents 
or  by  old  parents,  and  as  the  supply  of  women  over  30  and  men 
over  40  who  are  capable  of  reproducing  is  much  greater  than 
necessary  to  produce  this  result,  it  is  the  part  of  wisdom  to  encour- 
age older  persons  to  become  parents.  The  first  step  leading  to  this 
is  to  make  it  known  to  parents  of  small  families  that  the  product 


MENTAL    AND    PHYSICAL    RESULTS.  267 

of  later  age  is,  in  the  main,  superior  to  the  product  of  earlier  life. 
Tyler  says :  "If  we  could  add  even  five  years  to  the  working  life 
of  our  statesmen,  scholars  and  discoverers,  the  work  of  the  last 
five  years  with  the  advantages  of  all  previously  acquired  knowl- 
edge and  experience  might  be  of  more  value  than  that  of  their 
whole  previous  lives."1  To  this  I  will  add  that  if  we  could  induce 
the  parents  of  each  family  to  have  one  more  child  five  years  after 
they  would  normally  cease  reproduction,  the  children  so  produced 
might  do  more  for  the  advancement  of  civilization  and  race  progress 
than  all  of  the  other  children  put  together. 

THE  CYCLE   OF  ACTIONS. 

It  has  been  shown  that  later  births  cause  the  production  of 
greater  brains  and  the  consequent  advance  of  civilization ;  that  the 
increasing  stress  of  civilization  tends  to  produce  sterility;  and  that 
sterility  acts  to  wipe  out  the  race.  This  cycle  of  actions  doubtless 
was  an  important  factor  in  the  decay  of  ancient  civilizations,  and 
it  may  be  inquired  if  such  is  the  inevitable  result  of  progress.  To  this 
I  reply  that  it  is  not  necessarily  so.  It  has  been  shown  that  where 
sterility  actually  occurs  it  does  not  occur  so  much  among  those  who 
are  advanced  as  among  those  who  take  their  places  in  the  ranks  of 
the  advanced  but  are  not  themselves  advanced.  The  process  by 
which  men  and  women  of  higher  intellect  are  produced  tends  to 
make  them  adapted  to  the  circumstances  which  they  themselves 
create,  while  those  not  so  produced  are  placed  in  an  unnatural  posi- 
tion and  acquire  sterility  in  the  same  manner  that  wild  animals 
become  sterile  when  removed  from  their  natural  haunts  to  the 
society  of  man.  The  decline  of  Greece  and  Rome  was  not  due  to 
any  inability  on  the  part  of  their  intelligent  men  and  women  to 
(i)  The  Whence  and  the  Whither  of  Man,  p.  215. 


268  MENTAL    AND    PHYSICAL    RESULTS. 

produce  children,  but  partly  to  their  disinclination  to  do  so,  and 
partly  to  their  unending  wars,  which  were  continually  thinning 
their  ranks.  While  it  is  still  too  soon  for  wars  to  cease,  there  is 
such  an  increasing  tendency  to  check  it  that  there  is  very  little 
danger  of  future  wars  having  much  influence  on  future  genera- 
tions. The  danger  in  the  future  lies  more  in  the  disinclination  to 
reproduce  than  in  either  wars  or  sterility. 

DOMINANT   RACE   OF   THE   FUTURE. 

If  asked  what  race  will  in  the  future  dominate  the  world  I 
would  unhesitatingly  reply :  That  race  which  can  increase  in  num- 
bers at  the  latest  average  age  of  reproduction.  The  increase  does 
not  need  to  be  rapid,  but  it  must  be  actual.  Fear  need  not  be 
expressed  because  some  earlier  reproducing  race  is  increasing  more 
rapidly.  When  the  pressure  of  population  becomes  greater  the 
early  reproducing  and  less  intelligent  races  will  give  away  before 
the  stronger  and  more  intelligent.  The  result  of  this  may  be.  seen 
in  many  parts  of  the  world. 

CONCLUSION. 

Evolution  is  a  result  arising  from  increased  length  of  time 
between  generations  when  the  functional  activity  remains  constant, 
or  from  increased  functional  activity  when  the  time  between  genera- 
tions remains  constant,  and  is  most  marked  when  time  and  degree 
of  activity  both  increase.  Degeneracy  originates  in  decrease  of 
time  and  activity,  though  it  may  arise  from  an  exhausting  activity 
or  from  a  length  of  time  great  enough  to  produce  exhaustion. 

Knowing  the  forces  antecedent  to  evolution  we  may  set  these 
forces  into  operation  and,  theoretically,  may  arrive  at  any  desired 
degree  of  development.  Within  the  space  of  eight  or  ten  generations 


MENTAL    AND    PHYSICAL    RESULTS.  269 

man  has  nearly  doubled  the  length  of  time  between  generations  of 
our  improved  breeds  of  horses  and  cattle,  and  much  of  this  im- 
provement has  undoubtedly  arisen  as  a  result  of  this  increased 
length  of  time.  This  increase  of  the  time  between  generations  has 
not  been  deliberate,  but  has  been  the  unconscious  result  of  retain- 
ing superior  animals  for  breeding  purposes  as  long  as  possible. 
As  these  animals  breed  at  all  possible  ages,  and  as  selection  is  used 
to  weed  out  the  undesirable  individuals,  it  is  only  necessary  to  look 
through  the  ancestry  of  the  remaining  ones  to  find  the  best  average 
age  of  reproduction.  This  age  of  reproduction  is  not  to  be  deter- 
mined by  one  generation,  but  by  the  average  of  several  successive 
generations. 

While  man  may  not  use  selection  upon  himself  in  the  same 
manner  in  which  he  uses  it  on  the  lower  animals,  he  may  accom- 
plish the  same  result  by  the  use  of  his  intelligence.  The  advance 
of  civilization  tends  to  discourage  early  marriage,  but  the  luxury 
and  idleness  arising  from  the  accumulation  of  wealth  tend  to 
bring  on  sexual  excesses  which  in  turn  lead  to  early  puberty  and 
early  marriage.  Later  reproduction,  when  unaccompanied  by  sex- 
ual excesses,  tends  gradually  to  delay  the  time  of  puberty  in 
succeeding  generations,  and  physical  and  mental  activity  in  the 
child  not  only  tend  toward  the  same  result,  but  increase  the  de- 
velopment of  body  and  brain  before  puberty.  The  greater  the 
physical  and  mental  strength  before  puberty  the  longer  the  indi- 
vidual tends  to  live,  and  consequently  the  later  is  the  age  to  which 
reproduction  may  be  extended.  We  thus  have  a  cycle  of  causes 
and  effects,  each  of  which  may  be  intelligently  controlled  and  each 
of  which  tends  towards  a  longer  life  and  a  higher  and  better 
development. 

In  the  more  advanced  portion  of  the  civilized  races  puberty  is 


270 


MENTAL    AND    PHYSICAL    RESULTS. 


reached  at  14  or  15,  the  average  age  of  reproduction  is  at  32  or  33, 
and,  among  the  healthy  individuals,  the  average  length  of  life  is 
60  to  70.  The  first  point  of  attack  is  to  increase  the  average  age  of 
reproduction  by  discouraging  very  early  marriages  and  teaching 
the  older  individuals  that  their  best  children  are  produced  com- 
paratively late  in  life.  With  the  child  produced,  the  next  step  is  to 
encourage  him  in  physical  and  mental  activity.  At  this  point  comes 
the  test  of  parents'  good  sense,  for  nothing  can  be  more  vicious 
than  to  push  the  mental  development  at  the  expense  of  the  physical. 
The  two  should  go  together,  and  if  anything  the  physical  should 
be  in  advance  of  the  mental  because,  by  its  nature,  the  mental  de- 
velopment is  slower  than  the  physical  and  is  dependent  upon  it 
for  the  length  of  time  it  is  continued.  A  precocious  child  is  an 
interesting  object,  but  using  him  for  display  and  flattery  is  a  pro- 
cess of  injuring  him  and  killing  his  children. 

The  remark  of  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  to  the  effect  that  a 
man's  education  should  begin  with  his  grandfather  is  literally  true, 
and  should  be  extended  to  include  both  grandfathers  in  their  early 
childhood.  If  it  also  includes  a  considerable  education  accumulated 
by  the  great-grandparents,  then  the  son  will  become  a  man  of  great 
mental  power,  and  the  amount  of  mental  power  will  be  proportional 
to  the  accumulation  during  these  three  generations.  As  great  ac- 
cumulation is  the  result  only  of  long  time,  this  means  that  we  must 
have  functional  activity  accompanied  by  late,  reproduction.  Men 
of  today  are  exerting  themselves  to  give  their  sons  education  and 
opportunities  greater  than  they  themselves  had,  and  they  take  much 
private  satisfaction  in  the  prospective  prosperity  of  these  sons.  As 
these  sons  will  in  due  course  of  time  feel  in  the  same  way  toward 
the  next  succeeding  generation,  it  is  evident  that  the  man  who  has 
his  children's  happiness  at  heart  should  aim  at  his  grandchildren 


MENTAL    AND    PHYSICAL    RESULTS.  27! 

through  his  children.  When  this  becomes  the  universal  custom 
and  is  acted  upon  intelligently,  the  race  will  advance  more  rapidly 
than  ever  before. 

To  our  children  we  may  say:  Play  hard  and  study  hard  that 
you  may  grow  to  be  healthy  and  intelligent  men  and  women. 

To  our  young  men  and  women  we  may  say :  All  persons  who 
are  good  for  anything  and  who  hope  to  be  honorable  and  respectable 
members  of  society,  should  marry  and  leave  behind  them  children 
who  will  properly  represent  them  when  they  are  gone,  but  be  not 
hasty  in  marrying  because  the  best  specimens  of  human  beings  are 
never  the  children  of  young  parents. 

To  our  older  men  and  women  we  may  say :  All  that  you  have 
learned  and  all  that  you  have  accomplished  can,  and  will  be,  trans- 
mitted to  future  generations  by  others  through  the  medium  of 
records,  but  in  whatever  measure  you  have  developed  your  body 
and  your  mind  by  patient  and  long  continued  efforts,  that  measure 
can  be  transmitted  only  by  yourself  to  your  descendants,  and  what- 
ever honor  these  descendants  achieve  in  the  future,  that  honor 
will  be  your  honor. 


NOTE. 


There  has  been  much  difficulty  in  finding  dates  of  births  of  fathers  and 
mothers,  and  it  is  desirable  to  have  these  filled  out  as  much  as  possible  in  future 
editions.  Those  who  have  carefully  read  the  preceding  pages  will  probably  be 
struck  by  the  fact  that  eminent  men  are  very  frequently  descended  from  youngest 
sons  and  youngest  daughters,  or  from  sons  and  daughters  having  high  birth- 
ranks.  It  is  therefore  desirable  that  dates  be  obtained  for  grandparents  and 
great-grandparents  as  much  as  possible. 

The  phenomenon  of  mimicry  is  quite  common.  Certain  insects  look  like 
twigs,  others  take  the  form  of  leaves;  animals  are  gray  or  green  according  to 
the  color  of  their  surroundings;  animals  living  in  the  arctic  regions  are  often 
white  in  semblaace  of  snow;  other  animals  living  in  jungles  or  in  places  where 
narrow  vertical  shadows  are  cast,  are  often  barred  in  imitation  of  such  shadows. 

From  a  limited  number  of  cases  it  appears  that  the  sex  of  children  is  influ- 
enced by  the  surroundings  of  the  mother.  A  woman  who  kept  a  boarding  house 
patronized  exclusively  by  men,  had  a  son.  Another  woman  who  had  a  house 
full  of  sisters  and  aunts,  who  saw  few  men  except  her  husband,  and  not  much 
of  him,  had  a  daughter.  A  number  of  other  cases  of  the  same  character  have 
been  observed.  This  may  be  mimicry  and  may  possibly  be  due  to  a  psycho- 
logical cause.  It  is  desirable  that  further  instances  be  observed  of  mothers 
being  similarly  situated  so  that  it  may  be  determined  whether  the  observed 
cases  represent  an  actual  law  or  are  only  coincidents. 

The  statistics  relating  to  pauperism  and  crime  are  not  so  full  as  desired. 
It  will  help  greatly  if  wardens  of  penitentiaries,  overseers  of  the  poor,  and  per- 
sons connected  with  relief  organizations  would  gather  statistics  as  to  the  birth- 
ranks  of  those  with  whom  they  have  to  deal.  It  is  particularly  important  that 
the  birth-ranks  for  two  or  three  generations  be  determined  when  possible. 

The  author  will  esteem  it  as  a  favor  if  information  on  any  of  these  points, 
or  on  collateral  points,  be  sent  to  him  at  the  address  given  below. 

C.  L.  REDFIELD, 
1563  Monadnock  Block,  Chicago. 


JOHN   HUNTER   [65] 


ELIZABETH   [42] 


APPENDIX. 


The  scope  of  the  biographical  inquiry  and  the  evidence  from 
which  the  tables  have  been  constructed  are  shown  in  the  following 
list.  The  birth-ranks  as  far  as  known  are  appended  to  each  name 
in  brackets  immediately  following  the  dates  of  birth  and  death. 
The  absence  of  a  birth-rank  does  not  necessarily  mean  that  the 
rank  may  not  be  found,  but  simply  that  I  have  not  been  able  to  find 
it  from  the  facilities  at  hand  or  without  an  amount  of  research 
which  I  was  unwilling  to  give  the  matter  at  this  time. 

The  amount  of  effort  given  to  finding  dates  has  varied  with  the 
individual  to  whom  they  related.  For  the  more  eminent  of  these 
men  every  available  source  was  examined  before  search  was  aban- 
doned ;  for  the  less  eminent  I  have  been  content  to  examine  those 
sources  which  were  most  convenient.  The  sources  from  which  I 
have  obtained  these  dates  have  been  biographical  dictionaries, 
American,  French,  German,  and  Spanish  Encyclopaedias,  and  in- 
dividual biographies.  In  a  number  of  cases  I  have  found  that  the 
dates  given  by  one  authority  do  not  correspond  with  those  given 
by  another.  In  such  cases  I  have  sometimes  adopted  the  date 
which  appeared  to  have  the  best  authority,  and  in  other  cases  I 
have  used  the  date  given  by  the  last  found  authority  on  the  as- 
sumption that  I  may  have  made  a  mistake  in  copying  the  first  date. 
Such  cases  are,  however,  comparatively  rare,  and  usually  do  not 
involve  a  difference  of  more  than  one,  two  or  three  years.  While 
the  proper  ranking  of  any  individual  should  involve  the  birth-ranks 

273 


274  APPENDIX. 

of  all  persons  for  at  least  three  generations,  I  have  been  content 
to  obtain  that  of  the  individual  himself  except  in  the  cases  of  very 
remarkable  men  or  cases  in  which  further  birth-ranks  were  easily 
found. 

ABBAS,  BEN  ABD-EL-MOTTALIB  (566-652)  [67],  paternal 
uncle  of  Mohammed  and  progenitor  of  the  Abbasside  dynasty.  He 
was  son  of  Abd-al-Muttalib  (499 — )  [A].  See  Mohammed. 

ABBATUCCI,  CHARLES  (1771-1796)  [45],  a  French  general 
who  attained  distinction  before  reaching  the  age  of  25.  He  was  son 
of  Jacques  Pierre  Abbatucci  (1726-1812),  a  French  general  born  in 
Corsica. 

ADAMS  FAMILY.  Charles  Francis  Adams  (1807—)  [40],  was 
son  of  President  John  Quincy  Adams  (1767-1848)  [32],  who  was 
son  of  President  John  Adams  (1735-1826)  [43],  who  was  son  of 
Deacon  John  Adams  (1692 — )  [38],  who  was  son  of  Joseph  Adams 
(1654 — )  [28],  who  was  son  of  Joseph  Adams  (1626 — )  [A?].  The 
wife  of  Joseph  (1654)  was  Hannah  Bass  (1667 — )  [68-^2],  who  was 
granddaughter  of  John  Alden  (1599 — ). 

ABD-EL-KADER  (1806—),  an  Arab  emir  in  Algeria.  "A  man 
of  remarkable  powers  and  accomplishments."  He  was  son  of 
Mahiddin. 

AGASSIZ,  LOUIS  JOHN  RUDOLPHE  (1807-1873)  [31],  a 
Swiss  naturalist  in  America,  son  of  Rudolphe  Benjamin  Agassiz 
(1776-1837).  His  ancestors  were  clergymen  for  six  generations.  His 
mother  was  the  daughter  of  a  physician. 

AGRIPPINA  (B.  C.  12— A.  D.  33)  [51],  wife  of  Germanicus, 
and  "a  woman  of  great  ability,  beauty  and  virtue."  She  was  the 
youngest  daughter  of  Agrippa  (B.  C.  63 — A.  D.  12). 

ALCIBIADES  (B.  C.  450-404)  [A2?],  a  famous  Athenian  states- 
man and  general.  He  was  son  of  Cleinias  who  "greatly  distinguished 
himself  at  the  naval  battle  of  Artemisium,"  which  was  fought  B.  C. 
480. 

ALEXANDER  THE  GREAT  (B.  C.  356-323)  [26],  the  most 
famous  of  Greek  generals.  He  was  son  of  Philip  of  Macedon  (B.  C. 


APPENDIX.  275 

382-336)  [A2?],  the  real  founder  of  the  Macedonian  power,  and  the 
man  who  planned  the  campaigns  which  Alexander  carried  out.  Philip 
was  the  son  of  Amyntas  II  (B.  C. — 369),  who  contested  the  right 
to  the  throne  in  B.  C.  429,  or  47  years  before  the  birth  of  his  son. 
Amyntas  II  was  son  of  Alexander  I,  who  was  son  of  Amyntas  I, 
King  from  B.  C.  540  to  500. 

ALFRED  THE  GREAT  (849-901)  [A2?],  the  greatest  of  British 
kings,  was  fifth  and  youngest  son  of  Ethelwulf  ( — 858),  who  was 
King  of  the  West  Saxons  in  828,  and  was  called  "the  old  king"  at  the 
time  of  his  death. 

ALLEN,  ETHAN  (1739-1789),  an  American  soldier,  eldest  of 
five  sons  of  Joseph  Allen. 

ALLEN,  WILLIAM  (1784-1868)  [41],  an  American  author, 
educator  and  lexicographer,  and  president  of  Bowdoin  college.  He 
was  son  of  Rev.  Thomas  Allen  (1743-1810). 

ALSTROMER,  KLAS  (1736-1796)  [51],  a  Swedish  botanist, 
son  of  Jonas  Alstromer  (1685-1761),  a  public-spirited  Swede. 

AMPERE,  ANDRE  MARIE  (1775-1836),  a  French  physicist  and 
mathematician  of  great  ability. 

ANDERLONI,  PIETRO  (1784-1849),  an  Italian  engraver  of 
famous  pictures.  His  brother  Faustino,  18  years  older,  was  also  an 
engraver  but  less  famous. 

ANDERSEN,  HANS  CHRISTIAN  (1805-1875),  a  Danish 
author  of  fairy  tales.  His  father  was  a  poor  shoemaker,  but  possessed 
literary  taste. 

ARAGO,  a  French  family  of  four  brothers,  of  whom  the  eldest, 
Dominque  (1786-1853),  a  physicist  and  statesman,  and  the  youngest, 
Etienne  ( 1803 — ) ,  an  author  and  revolutionist  of  1848,  were  the  most 
prominent. 

ARISTOTLE  (B.  C.  384-322)  [A3?],  a  Greek  philosopher  and 
naturalist,  son  of  Nicomachus,  who  was  the  friend  and  physician  in 
ordinary  of  King  Amyntas  II.  See  page  127. 

ARKWRIGHT,  SIR  RICHARD   (1732-1792)    [A],,  inventor  of 


276  APPENDIX. 

the  cotton-spinning  frame.     He  was  the  youngest  of  a  family  of  13, 
and  his  parents  were  too  poor  to  give  him  an  education. 

ARNAULD,  ANTOINE  (1612-1694)  [52],  a  French  theologian 
and  author,  called  "the  great  Arnauld."  He  was  the  youngest  and 
most  famous  of  several  famous  sons  of  Antoine  Arnauld  (1560-1619), 
a  Parisian  lawyer. 

ASSING,  LUDMILLA  (1827—)  [A],  a  German  authoress, 
daughter  of  Rosa  Maria  Assing  (1783-1840),  a  poetess. 

ASTOR,  JOHN  JACOB  (1763-1848),  the  founder  of  the  Astor 
family  in  America.  He  was  the  youngest  of  four  sons. 

AUDUBON,  JOHN  JAMES  (1780-1851)  [57],  an  American 
naturalist,  famous  for  his  "Birds  of  America"  and  his  "Quadrupeds 
of  America."  He  was  son  of  John  Audubon  (1723 — )  [A3],  a  French 
admiral  who  was  twentieth  child  of  a  poor  fisherman. 

AUGUSTINE,  SAINT  (Aurelius  Augustinus)  (354-430),  a 
doctor  of  the  Latin  church,  famous  for  his  influence  and  his  writings 
on  morality,  philosophy  and  theology.  He  was  son  of  Patricius,  a 
pagan  nobleman,  and  was  an  orphan  at  an  early  age. 

AUGUSTUS,  CAIUS  JULIUS  CAESAR  OCTAVIANUS  (B. 
C.  63 — A.  D.  14)  [(i53+x)-^-3J,  the  founder  of  the  Roman  Empire 
and  the  greatest  of  the  Romans.  He  was  son  of  Caius  Octavius,  a 
rich  senator,  and  Atia,  a  daughter  of  Julia,  the  youngest  sister  of 
Julius  Caesar.  The  paternal  great-grandfather  was  in  the  battle  of 
Cannae,  B.  C.  216,  and  was  one  of  the  few  who  escaped. 

BACH,  the  name  of  a  celebrated  family  of  musicians.  See  page 
180. 

BACHE,  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN  (1801— )  [64—2],  an 
American  physician,  grandson  of  Richard  Bache  (1737-1811)  and 
Sarah  Franklin  (1744-1808)  [38],  only  daughter  of  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin (1706-1790). 

BACON,  FRANCIS  (1561-1626)  [52],  an  English  philosopher, 
expounder  of  inductive  philosophy,  and  lord  chancellor  of  England. 
He  was  the  youngest  son  of  Sir  Nicholas  Bacon  (1509-1579),  an 
English  statesman  who  was  second  son  of  Robert  Bacon.  His  mother 


APPENDIX.  277 

was  daughter  of  Sir  Anthony  Cooke  and  was  said  to  have  been  the 
best  educated  woman  in  England. 

BAER,  CARL  ERNST  VON  (1792-1876),  a  German  zoologist. 

BAIRD,  SPENCER  FULLERTON  (1823-1887),  an  American 
naturalist,  son  of  Samuel  Baird,  a  lawyer  of  much  culture.  Was  an 
orphan  at  10. 

BALTARD,  VICTOR  (1805—)  [40],  an  eminent  French  archi- 
tect, son  of  Louis  Pierre  Baltard  (1765-1846),  the  architect  of  the 
Pantheon,  the  Paris  prisons  and  other  famous  buildings.  Prosper 
Baltard  (1796 — ),  also  an  architect,  was  elder  brother  of  Victor,  but 
less  eminent. 

BALZAC,  HONORE  DE  (1799-1850),  a  French  novelist  who 
wrote  97  books. 

BANCROFT,  GEORGE  (1800-1891)  [45],  an  American  his- 
torian, son  of  Rev.  Aaron  Bancroft  (1755-1839),  director  of  divinity 
at  Harvard  College. 

BARRINGTON,  the  name  of  an  English  family  of  four  brothers 
who  became  famous  in  different  walks  of  life.  They  were  sons  of 
John  Shute-Barrington  (1678-1734),  a  lawyer  and  author.  William 
Wildman  Barrington  (1717-1793)  [39],  the  eldest,  was  secretary  of 
war,  chancellor  of'  the  exchequer  and  treasurer  of  the  navy.  Daines 
Barrington  (1727-1800)  [49]  was  jurist,  naturalist  and  author. 
Samuel  Barrington  ( — 1800)  [A2]  was  a  rear  admiral.  Shute  Bar- 
rington (1734-1826)  [56]  was  a  prelate,  author  and  philanthropist. 

BARROT,  CAMILLE  HYACINTHE  ODILON  (1791-1873) 
[38],  a  popular  French  advocate  and  statesman,  especially  prominent 

in  political  trials.    He  was  son  of ( 1753-1845),, 

a  Royalist  advocate.  Victorin  Ferdinand  Barrot  (1806 — )  [53], 
brother  of  the  Odilon,  was  solicitor  of  the  treasury,  counsel  for  Louis 
Napoleon,  minister  of  the  interior,  and  senator.  ,». 

BASIL  THE  GREAT  (329-379),  a  saint  of  the  Christian  church, 
son  of  St.  Basil  the  Elder  and  Ste.  Emmelia. 

BECKET,  THOMAS  A.  (1117-1170),  an  English  prelate  and 
statesman.  His  father,  Gilbert  Becket,  was  a  native  of  Rouen,  had 


278  APPENDIX. 

been  a  merchant  at  that  place,  but  was  established  as  a  merchant  in 
London  at  the  time  of  his  son's  birth. 

BEECHER  FAMILY.  Lyman  Beecher,  D.  D.  (1775-1863)  was 
the  first  famous  member  of  the  family.  He  was  son  of  David  Beecher 
by  his  third  wife.  Lyman  Beecher  was  the  father  of  eleven  children 
who  grew  to  maturity,  the  most  prominent  of  whom  are:  Catherine 
E.  (1800-1878)  [25];  Harriet  (Mrs.  Stowe)  (1812—)  [37];  Henry 
Ward  (1813-1887)  [38]  ;  and  Thomas  K.  (1824—)  [49]  (by  second 
wife).  See  also  page  93. 

BEETHOVEN,  LUDWIG  VAN  (1770-1827)  [31],  a  German 
musical  composer  ranked  as  one  of  the  greatest.  He  was  son  of 
Johann  van  Beethoven  (1739-1792)  [27],  a  tenor  singer,  who  was 
son  of  Ludwig  van  Beethoven  (1712-1773)  [54],  a  musician  who 
was  son  of  Wilhelm  van  Beethoven  (1658 — ). 

BELL,  SIR  CHARLES  (1774-1842)  [A?],  a  British  surgeon  and 
anatomist  of  high  distinction.  He  was  the  youngest  of  six  children  of 
Rev.  William  Bell  and  was  a  brother  of  John  Bell  (1763-1820),  who 
was  also  a  surgeon  and  who  was  the  second  son. 

BENTHAM,  JEREMY  (1748-1832),  an  English  juridical  phil- 
osopher and  utilitarian  writer.  He  was  the  eldest,  and  for  nine  years 
the  only  child.  His  father  and  grandfather  were  lawyers,  and  his 
great-grandfather  was  a  successful  pawnbroker  in  the  time  of  Charles 
II.  His  mother  was  the  daughter  of  a  retired  shopkeeper. 

BENTLEY,  RICHARD  (1662-1742),  an  English  classical  scholar 
and  critic,  son  of  Thomas  Bentley  by  his  second  wife. 

BENTON,  THOMAS  HART  (1782-1858),  an  American  states- 
man, son  of  Col.  Jesse  Benton,  a  prominent  lawyer  in  North  Carolina. 
He  was  an  orphan  at  the  age  of  eight. 

BERGMAN,  TORBERN  OLOF  (1735-1784),  a  distinguished 
Swedish  chemist  and  naturalist. 

BERKELEY,  GEORGE  (1684-1753),  an  Irish  prelate  and  philos- 
opher, son  of  William  Berkeley,  a  collector  at  BelfaSv. 

BERNADOTTE,  JEAN  BAPTISTE  JULES  (1764-1844),  a 
French  marshal  under  Napoleon  and  subsequently  king  of  Sweden 


APPENDIX.  279 

and  Norway  under  the  title  of  Charles  XIV.     He  was  the  son  of  a 
lawyer. 

BERNARD,  SAINT  (1091-1153),  a  French  ecclesiastic.  He  was 
the  third  of  seven  children  of  Tescelin,  a  Knight  of  the  house  of 
Chatillon,  and  Aleth,  daughter  of  Count  Bernard. 

BERNOULLI,  a  celebrated  family  of  Swiss  mathematicians  and 
savants.  The  most  eminent  member  of  the  family  was  John  Bernoulli 
(1667-1748),  who  is  ranked  with  Newton  and  Leibnitz,  and  who  was 
born  44  years  after  his  brother  Nicholas.  See  also  page  182. 

BERRYER,  ANTOINE  PIERRE  (1790-1868)  [33],  a  French 
advocate  and  statesman,  son  of  Pierre  Nicolas  Berryer  (1757-1841), 
an  eminent  lawyer. 

BERTHOLLET,  CLAUDE  LOUIS  (1748-1822),  a  French 
chemist. 

BERZELIUS,  JOHAN  JAKOB  (1779-1848),  a  Swedish  chemist, 
son  of  a  government  schoolmaster. 

BESSEMER,  SIR  HENRY  (1813—),  an  English  engineer,  in- 
ventor of  the  Bessemer  process  of  making  steel. 

BISMARCK-SCHONHAUSEN,  OTTO  EDUARD  LEOPOLD 
VON  (1815 — )  [44],  a  German  statesman  and  principal  factor  in  the 
establishment  of  the  German  Empire.  He  was  the  youngest  surviving 
son  of  Karl  W.  F.  von  Bismarck  (1771 — ),  who  was  the  fourth  son  of 
Karl  Alexander  von  Bismarck,  who  was  second  son  of  August  Fried- 
rich  von  Bismarck. 

BLACKSTONE,  SIR  WILLIAM  (1723-1780),  an  English  law- 
yer whose  writings  on  the  common  law  are  still  standard  in  all 
English-speaking  countries.  He  was  the  fourth  and  posthumous  son 
of  a  silk  mercer,  who  was  third  son  of  an  eminent  apothecary.  His 
mother  died  before  he  was  12  years  old,  leaving  him  to  the  care  of 
his  uncle,  a  London  surgeon. 

BLAINVILLE,  HENRI  MARIE  DUCROTAY  DE  (1777-1850), 
a  French  naturalist.  He  was  an  orphan  at  an  early  age. 

BLUCHER,  GEBHARD  LEBERECHT  VON  (1742-1819),  a 

Prussian  field  marshal. 


280  APPENDIX. 

BLUMENBACH,  JOHANN  FRIEDRICH  (1752-1840),  a  Ger- 
man naturalist,  son  of  a  teacher. 

BOCCACCIO,  GIOVANNI  (1313-1375),  an  Italian  novelist, 
illegitimate  son  of  a  wealthy  merchant. 

BOCKH,  AUGUST  VON  (1785-1867),  a  German  philologist  and 
antiquary.  He  was  younger  brother  of  Friedrich  von  Bockh  (1777- 
1855),  who  was  prime  minister  of  Baden. 

BOERHAAVE.  HERMANN  (1668-1738),  a  Dutch  physician, 
son  of  a  clergyman. 

BOETHIUS,  ANICIUS  MANLIUS  TORQUATUS  SEVERI- 
NUS  (475-525),  a  Roman  philosopher  and  statesman.  He  was  son 
of  a  Roman  consul  and  was  an  orphan  as  a  child. 

BOGARDUS,  JAMES  (1800-1874),  an  American  inventor  who 
produced  many  devices  now  in  use. 

BONAPARTE,  NAPOLEON  (1769-1821)  [23],  emperor  of 
France  and  the  greatest  soldier  of  modern  history.  His  father  was 
Carlo  Maria  Bonaparte  (1746-1785),  a  lawyer,  a  follower  of  Paoli, 
and  an  officer  in  the  Corsican  war  against  Genoa.  His  mother  was 
Maria  Letizia  Ramolino  (Madame  Laetitia),  a  woman  of  remarkable 
character  who  followed  her  husband  in  his  campaigns  shortly  before 
the  birth  of  Napoleon. 

BONNET,  CHARLES  (1720-1793),  a  Swiss  naturalist  and  phil- 
osopher. Was  uncle  of  de  Saussure  (1740-1799). 

BONOMI,  JOSEPH  (1796—)  [57],  an  English  archaeologist  and 
author,  son  of  Giuseppe  Bonomi  (1739-1808),  an  Italian  architect 
who  located  in  London. 

BOSSUET,  JACQUES  BENIGNE  (1627-1704),  a  French  prelate 
famous  for  his  oratorical  powers.  He  came  from  a  family  of  lawyers. 

BOSWELL,  JAMES  (1740-1795)  [34],  a  British  author,  biog- 
rapher of  Samuel  Johnson.  He  was  son  of  Judge  Alexander  Boswell 
(1706-). 

BOWDITCH,  NATHANIEL  (1773-1838),  an  American  mathe- 
matician,  son  of  a  cooper. 


APPENDIX.  28l 

BOYLE,  ROBERT  (1626-1691)  [60],  an  Irish  philosopher,  called, 
on  account  of  his  philosophical  experiments,  "the  great  Christian 
philosopher."  He  was  the  fourteenth  child  of  Richard  Boyle  (1566- 
1643),  earl  of  Cork. 

BRAKE,  TYCHO  (1546-1601)  [29],  a  Danish  astronomer,  son 
of  Otto  Brahe  (1517 — ),  who  was  descended  from  a  younger  branch 
of  a  princely  family.  His  youngest  sister  displayed  great  mental  ability. 

BRO'NTE,  CHARLOTTE  (1816-1855)  [39],  an  English  novelist, 
daughter  of  Rev.  Patrick  Bronte  (1777-1861),  a  native  of  Ireland  and 
one  of  ten  children. 

BROUGHAM,  HENRY  (1779-1868),  an  English  statesman, 
orator  and  lord  chancellor. 

BROUSSAIS,  FRANCOIS  JOSEPH  VICTOR  (1772-1838),  a 
French  physician,  son  of  a  physician.  His  son,  Casimir  A.  M.  Brous- 
sais  (1803-1847)  [31],  was  also  a  physician. 

BROWN,  JOHN  (1735-1788),  a  Scottish  physician,  founder  of 
the  Brunonian  system.  He  was  the  son  of  a  poor  farmer. 

BRUCE,  ROBERT  (1274-1329)  [21],  king  of  the  Scots,  son 
of  Robert  Bruce  (1253-1304)  [43],  son  of  Robert  Bruce  (1210-1295), 
who  was  the  younger  branch  of  the  family  descended  fron\  the  young- 
est brother  of  King  William  the  Lion. 

BRUNEL,  ISAMBARD  KINGDOM  (1806-1859)  '[37],  an  Eng- 
lish engineer  and  naval  architect.  He  was  the  designer  of  the  Great 
Eastern  as  well  as  the  first  steamship  to  regularly  cross  the  Atlantic. 
He  was  son  of  Sir  Mark  Isambard  Brunei  (1769-1849),  a  civil  engi- 
neer of  French  birth. 

BRUNO,  GIORDANO,  an  Italian  philosopher,  expounder  of  the 
Copernican  system.  Burned  at  the  stake  in  Rome,  Feb.  17,  1600. 

BRYANT,  WILLIAM  CULLEN  (1794-1878)  [27],  an  Ameri- 
can poet,  son  of  Peter  Bryant  (1767-1820)  [36],  a  distinguished 
physician  who  was  son  of  Dr.  Philip  Bryant  (1731-1816)  [29],  who 
was  son  of  Ichobod  Bryant  (1702-1759). 

BUCH,  LEOPOLD  VON  (1774-1853),  a  German  geologist. 


2g2  APPENDIX. 

BUCKINGHAM,  DUKE  OF  (George  Villiers)  (1592-1628),  an 
English  statesman  and  lord  high  admiral.  He  was  second  son  of 
Sir  George  Villiers  of  Brookesby  by  his  second  wife.  His  brother, 
Sir  Edward  Villiers  (1585-1626),  was  the  second  son  by  first  wife. 
He  was  an  orphan  at  13. 

BUCKLAND,  FRANCIS  TREVELYAN  (1826—)  [42],  an  Eng- 
lish naturalist,  son  of  William  Buckland,  D.  D.  (1784-1856),  an  Eng- 
lish geologist. 

BUCKLE,  HENRY  THOMAS  (1821-1862)  [42],  the  author  of 
"History  of  Civilization."  He  was  son  of  Thomas  Buckle  (1779 — )• 

BUDDHA  (B.  C.  550-470).    See  page  124. 

BUFFON,  GEORGE  LOUIS  LECLERC  (1707-1788)  [24],  a 
French  naturalist,  son  of  Benjamin  Leclerc  (1683-1775),  a  councillor 
of  the  parliament  of  Dijon. 

BULWER,  HENRY  LYTTON  EARLE  ^1804-1872)  [47],  an 
English  diplomatist  and  author,  brother  of  Bulwer-Lytton  and  son 
of  Gen.  Bulwer  (1757 — ). 

BULWER-LYTTON,  EDWARD  GEORGE  EARLE  LYTTON 
(1806-1873)  [49],  an  English  novelist.  His  son,  Edward  Robert 
Bulwer-Lytton  (Owen  Meredith)  (1831-1891)  [25],  was  a  poet. 

BUNSEN,  CHRISTIAN  KARL  JOSIAS  (1791-1860)  [A2],  a 
German  scholar  and  diplomatist.  His  father  became  a  soldier  in  1760. 
His  grandfather  was  a  lawyer. 

BUNSEN,  ROBERT  WILHELM  (1811— )  [A»],  a  German 
chemist,  inventor  of  the  Bunsen  battery,  the  Bunsen  burner,  the  Bun- 
sen  photometer,  the  Bunsen  pump,  and  other  devices.  He  was  a 
cousin  of  C.  K.  J.  Bunsen,  but  was  20  years  younger. 

BUNYAN,  JOHN  (1628-1688)  [25],  an  English  preacher,  and 
author  of  "Pilgrim's  Progress."  He  was  son  of  Thomas  Bunyan 
(1603 — ),  a  tinker. 

BUONARROTI,  MICHAEL  ANGELO  (1475-1563)  [31],  an 
Italian  painter,  sculptor,  architect,  poet  and  musician.  He  was  son 
of  Ludovico  Leonardo  Buonarroti  Simone  (1444 — ),  governor  of 
Caprese.  The  mother  of  Angelo  was  19  at  his  birth. 


APPENDIX.  283 

BURDETT-COUTTS,  ANGELA  GEORGIANA  (1814—)  [44], 
an  English  philanthropist,  youngest  daughter  of  Sir  Francis  Burdett 
(1770-1844),  an  English  politician  who  married  the  youngest  daugh- 
ter of  Thomas  Coutts,  a  London  banker. 

BURKE,  EDMUND  (1730-1797),  an  English  statesman,  son  of 
Richard  Burke  who  practiced  law  in  Limerick  and  later  in  Dublin, 
where  he  married  in  1725.  Ancestry  in  female  line  to  poet  Spenser 
is  177-^-4=44-1-. 

BURNOUF,  EUGENE  (1801-1852),  [26],  a  French  orientalist, 
son  of  the  distinguished  philologist,  Jean  Louis  Burnouf  (1775-1844). 
His  cousin,  Emile  Louis  Burnouf  (1821 — ),  was  an  eminent  scholar 
born  20  years  later. 

BURNS,  ROBERT  (1759-1796)  [38],  a  Scottish  poet,  son  of 
William  Burns  (1721 — ),  who  was  son  of  Robert  Burns.  The  mother 
of  Burns  was  much  younger  than  her  husband  and  died  Jan.  14,  1820. 

BURR,  AARON  (1756-1836)  [40],  an  American  soldier,  poli- 
tician and  vice-president  of  the  United  States.  He  was  son  of  Rev. 
Aaron  Burr  (1716-1757),  president  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey. 

BURRITT,  ELIHU  (1810-1879)  [A?],  an  American  scholar  and 
reformer  known  as  the  "Learned  Blacksmith."  He  was  the  youngest 
of  ten  children. 

BUTLER,  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN  (1818-1893),  an  American 
lawyer,  statesman  and  soldier,  son  of  John  Butler  who  was  son  of 
Capt.  Zephaniah  Butler. 

BYRON,  GEORGE  GORDON  (1788-1824)  [32],  an  English 
poet,  son  of  John  Byron  ("mad  Jack  Byron")  (1756 — )  [33],  who 
was  son  of  Admiral  John  Byron  (1723-1786)  [54],  who  was  son  of 
William  Byron  (1669 — )• 

CAESAR,  CAIUS  JULIUS  (B.  C.  100-44),  a  Roman  general 
and  statesman. 

CALDERON  DE  LA  BARCA,  PEDRO  (1600-1681),  a  Spanish 
dramatist,  and  "next  to  Shakespeare  the  greatest  of  modern  play- 
wrights." He  was  the  youngest  of  four  children  and  an  orphan  at 


284  APPENDIX. 

the  age  of  eight.    His  father  was  connected  with  the  financial  branch 
of  the  government  under  Philip  II. 

CALHOUN,  JOHN  CALDWELL  (1782-1850)  [55],  an  Ameri- 
can statesman  of  high  order,  son  of  Patrick  Calhoun  (1727 — ). 

CALVIN,  JOHN  (1509-1564),  a  religious  reformer,  son  of 
Gerard  Chauvin,  an  apostolic  notary  and  fiscal  procurator  in  Noyon. 

CAMPER,  PIETER  (1722-1789),  a  Dutch  anatomist  and  physi- 
cian. 

CANDOLLE,  AUGUSTIN  PYRAMUS  DE  (1778-1841),  an 
eminent  Swiss  botanist,  son  of  a  magistrate. 

CANNING,  CHARLES  JOHN  (1812-1862)  [42],  a  British 
statesman,  created  earl,  son  of  the  statesman  George  Canning. 

CANNING,  GEORGE  (1770-1827)  [67-7-2],  a  British  statesman, 
posthumous  son  of  George  Canning,  a  London  barrister  who  was  son 
of  Stratford  Canning  (1703-1775). 

CANNING,  STRATFORD  (1786-1880)  [83-7-2],  a  British 
statesman,  youngest  son  of  Stratford  Canning,  son  of  Stratford  Can- 
ning (I703-I775). 

CANOVA,  ANTONIO  (1757-1822),  an  Italian  sculptor  descended 
from  a  long  line  of  stone  cutters. 

CARLYLE,  THOMAS  (1795-1881)  [38],  a  British  author,  son 
of  James  Carlyle  (1757 — ),  son  of  Thomas  Carlyle. 

CARNOT  FAMILY.     See  page  182. 

CARPENTER,  WILLIAM  BENJAMIN  (1813-1885)  [33],  an 
English  physiologist,  son  of  Lant  Carpenter,  LL.  D.  (1780-1840),  an 
English  clergyman. 

CARPZOV  FAMILY.    See  page  181. 

CARTWRIGHT,  EDMUND  (1743-1823),  an  English  clergyman, 
inventor  of  the  power  loom.  He  was  son  of  William  Cartwright. 
His  elder  brother,  John  Cartwright  (1740-1824),  a  political  reformer, 
was  the  third  son. 

CARUS,  KARL  GUSTAV  (1789-1869),  a  German  physician  and 
naturalist. 


APPENDIX.  285 

CARUS,  VICTOR  JULIUS  (1823—)  [28],  a  German  biologist, 
son  of  Ernst  August  Carus  (1795-1854)  [25],  a  professor  of  surgery 
who  was  son  of  Friedrich  August  Carus  (1770-1807),  a  professor  of 
surgery  and  an  author. 

CASSINI,  a  family  of  Italian  and  French  astronomers,  four  mem- 
bers of  which  were  directors  of  the  Paris  observatory  for  the  first  122 
years  of  its  existence.  I.  Giovanni  Domenico  Cassini  (1625-1712), 
the  first  director,  made  many  discoveries.  II.  Jacques  Cassini  (1677- 
1756)  [52],  son  of  the  preceding  and  second  director.  He  and  his 
father  were  the  two  most  eminent  members  of  the  family.  III.  Cesar 
Frangois  Cassini  (1714-1784)  [37],  son  of  the  preceding  and  third 
director.  IV.  Jacques  Dominique  Cassini  (1748-1845)  [34],  son  of 
the  preceding  and  fourth  director.  V.  Alexandre  Henri  Gabriel  Cas- 
sini (1781-1832)  [33],  a  botanist,  son  of  the  preceding. 

CASSIODORUS,  MAGNUS  AURELIUS  (468-560),  an  Italian 
statesman,  author  and  ascetic.  He  was  of  an  ancient  and  wealthy 
Roman  family. 

CASTELAR,  EMILIO  (1832—),  a  Spanish  statesman,  son  of  an 
exchange  broker  and  an  orphan  at  the  age  of  seven. 

CATO,  MARCUS  PORCIUS  (B.  C  95-46)  [139-^-3],  a  Roman 
statesman,  philosopher  and  general,  great-grandson  of  Marcus  Porcius 
Cato  the  Elder  (B.  C.  234-149),  a  statesman  and  patriot.  Both  were 
orphans  when  very  young.  M.  Porcius  Cato  Salonianus,  son  of  Cato 
the  Elder,  was  born  in  his  father's  8oth  year,  and  lived  to  become 
praetor. 

CAVAIGNAC,  LOUIS  EUGENE  (1802-1857)  [40],  a  French 
general,  son  of  Jean  Baptiste  Cavaignac  (1762-1829),  a  French  revo- 
lutionist. The  elder  brother  of  Louis,  Eleonore  Louis  Godefroy 
Cavaignac  (1801-1845)  [39],  was  a  journalist  and  republican  leader. 

CAVOUR,  CAMILLO  BENSO1  (1810-1861),  an  Italian  states- 
man, younger  son  of  Michael  Cavour. 

CELLINI,  BENVENUTO  (1500-1570),  an  Italian  artist,  son  of 
a  musician. 

CELSIUS,  ANDERS   (1701-1744)    [43],  a  Swedish  astronomer 


286  APPENDIX. 

and  inventor  of  the  centigrade  thermometer.     He  was  son  of  Nils 
Celsius   (1658-1724),  a  mathematician  and  naturalist. 

CELSIUS,  OLOF  DE  (1716-1794)  [A?],  a  Swedish  historian, 
cousin  of  Anders  and  probably  son  of  Olaf  Celsius  (16701756),  a 
theologian  and  younger  brother  of  Nils  Celsius  (1658-1724). 

CERVANTES  SAAVEDRA,  MIGUEL  DE  (1547-1616),  a 
Spanish  author,  the  youngest  of  four  sons  of  Rodrigo  Cervantes. 

CHALMERS,  THOMAS,  D.  D.  (1780-1847),  a  Scottish  clergy- 
man and  author,  the  6th  of  14  children  of  John  Chalmers. 

CHALONER,  SIR  THOMAS  (1561-1615)  [40],  an  English 
naturalist,  son  of  Sir  Thomas  Chaloner  (1521-1565),  a  diplomatist 
and  author. 

CHAMPOLLION  LE  JEUNE  (the  younger),  JEAN  FRAN- 
COIS (1791-1832),  a  French  Egyptologist,  younger  brother  of 
Jacques  Joseph  Champollion  (1778-1867),  a  French  archaeologist. 

CHANNING,  WILLIAM  ELLERY,  D.  D.  (1780-1842)  [29], 
an  American  clergyman  and  author,  son  of  William  Channing  (1751 — ) 
[36].  See  Hall  of  Fame. 

CHARLEMAGNE  (742-814)  [27],  emperor  of  the  West  and 
king  of  France,  son  of  Pepin  (715-768)  [25],  who  was  son  of  Charles 
Martel  (690-741)  [40],  who  was  son  of  Pepin  of  Heristal,  born 
about  650. 

CHARLES  XII,  king  of  Sweden  (1682-1718)  [27],  son  of  Charles 
XI  (1655-1697)  [33],  who  was  son  of  Charles  X  (1622-1660),  who 
was  son  of  John  Casimir  and  Catherine,  the  sister  of  Gustavus 
Adol^hus. 

CHASE,  SALMON  PORTLAND  (1808-1873),  an  American 
statesman  and  chief  justice  of  the  U.  S.  Supreme  Court.  He  was  an 
orphan  at  the  age  of  seven. 

CHATEAUBRIAND,  FRANCOIS  AUGUSTE  (1768-1848) 
[A],  a  French  author  and  statesman,  the  youngest  of  ten  children. 

CHATTERTON,  THOMAS  (1752-1770)  [39],  an  English  poet 
called  by  Wordsworth  "the  marvelous  boy."  He  was  the  posthumous 


APPENDIX.  287 

son  of  Thomas  Chatterton  (1713-1752),  a  school  teacher.    His  mother 
was  21  at  the  time  of  his  birth. 

CHAUCER,  GEOFFREY  (1328-1400),  an  English  poet. 

CHENIER:  Andre  Marie  de  Chenier  (1762-1794)  [39]  and 
Marie  Joseph  de  Chenier  (1764-1811)  [41],  French  poets,  sons  of 
Louis  de  Chenier  (1723-1796),  a  French  historian. 

CHEVREUL,  MICHEL  EUGENE  (1786-1889)  [32],  a  French 
chemist,  son  of  Michael  Chevreul  (1754-1845). 

CHRYSOSTOM,  JOHN  (347-407),  a  bishop,  doctor  and  saint  of 
the  Eastern  church.  He  was  an  orphan  in  infancy. 

CIBBER,  COLLEY  (1671-1757)  [41],  an  English  poet  and  dram- 
atist, son  of  Caius  Gabriel  Cibber  (1630-1700),  a  sculptor. 

CICERO,  MARCUS  TULLIUS  (B.  C  106-43),  a  Roman  orator, 
statesman  and  philosopher. 

CLARENDON,  Earl  of  (Edward  Hyde)  (1609-1674),  a  British 
statesman  and  historian,  third  son  of  Henry  Hyde. 

CLAY,  HENRY  (1777-1852),  an  American  statesman,  fifth  child 
of  Rev.  John  Clay  and  an  orphan  at  the  age  of  four. 

CLINTON,  DEWITT  (1769-1828)  [33],  an  American  statesman, 
son  of  James  Clinton  (1736-1812)  [46],  an  American  soldier  who  was 
fourth  son  of  Charles  Clinton  (1690-1773). 

CLINTON,  GEORGE  (1739-1812)  [49],  an  American  soldier 
and  statesman,  youngest  son  of  Charles  Clinton  (1690-1773). 

CLIVE,  ROBERT  (1725-1774),  a  British  soldier  and  statesman, 
died  by  his  own  hand,  son  of  Richard  Clive. 

CLOQUET,  JULES  GERMAIN  (1790-1883),  a  French  physi- 
cian who  "became  one  of  the  most  eminent  surgeons  in  the  world." 
His  elder  brother,  Hippolyte  Cloquet  (1787-1840),  was  also  a  dis- 
tinguished physician  and  teacher  of  anatomy. 

COBBETT,  WILLIAM  (1762-1835),  an  English  political  writer, 
son  of  an  innkeeper. 

COBDEN,  RICHARD  (1804-1865),  an  English  statesman,  fourth 


288  APPENDIX. 

[  ?]  of  eleven  children  of  William  Cobden  and  an  orphan  at  an  early 
age. 

COCKBURN,  SIR  ALEXANDER  JAMES  EDMUND  (1802—) 
[28?],  lord  chancellor  of  England,  son  of  Alexander  Cockburn 
(1774? — )  [45?], -a  diplomat  who  was  fourth  son  of  Sir  James  Cock- 
burn  (1729 — ). 

COKE,  SIR  EDWARD  (1552-1633),  an  English  jurist. 

COLERIDGE,  SAMUEL  TAYLOR  (1772-1834)  [53],  an  Eng- 
lish poet  and  philosopher,  youngest  son  of  John  Coleridge  (1719 — ), 
a  learned  and  amiable  clergyman. 

COLFAX,  SCHUYLER  (1823-1885),  an  American  statesman 
and  vice-president,  grandson  of  Gen.  Wm.  Colfax  (1760 — ). 

COLIGNY.     See  page  184. 

COLUMBUS,  CHRISTOPHER,  discoverer  of  America.  Place 
and  date  of  his  birth  is  uncertain.  One  account  makes  him  the  eldest, 
and  another  makes  him  the  youngest,  of  three  brothers. 

COMBE,  ANDREW  (1797-1847)  [A2],  a  Scottish  physician  and 
author.  He  was  the  I5th  child. 

COMBE,  GEORGE  (1788-1858)  [A?],  a  Scottish  phrenologist, 
one  of  the  elder  brothers  of  Andrew. 

COMPTON,  HENRY  (1632-1713)  [42],  bishop  of  London, 
youngest  son  of  Spencer  Compton  (1690 — ). 

COMTE,  AUGUSTS  (1798-1857),  a  French  philosopher,  founder 
of  the  system  of  positivism. 

CONDORCET,  MARIE  JEAN  ANTOINE  NICOLAS  CARI- 
TAT  (1743-1794),  a  French  savant.  He  was  descended  from  a 
noble  family  and  was  an  orphan  at  the  age  of  four. 

CONFUCIUS   (B.  C.  551-479)    [A3].     See  page  123. 

CONSTANTINE  THE  GREAT  (2727-337),  emperor  of  Rome, 
son  of  Constantius  Chlorus  (25o?-3o6). 

COOPER,  SIR  ASTLEY  (1768-1841),  an  English  surgeon,  son 
of  the  curate  of  Brooke.  His  mother  was  a  popular  writer  of  her  day. 


APPENDIX.  289 

COOPER,  JAMES  FENIMORE  (1789-1851)  [A],  an  American 
novelist,  son  of  Judge  William  Cooper.  He  was  the  eleventh  of  twelve 
children. 

COPE,  EDWARD  DRINKER  (1840—),  an  American  naturalist 
and  comparative  anatomist. 

COPERNICUS,  NIKOLAUS  (1473-1543)  [(77+x)-H2],  a  Polish 
astronomer,  discoverer  of  the  system  of  planetary  revolutions.  His 
father  was  a  councillor  in  1465,  and  his  grandfather  was  established 
in  business  at  Cracow  in  1396.  He  was  an  orphan  at  the  age  of  ten. 

COQUEREL,  ATHANASE  LAURENT  CHARLES  (1795- 
1868),  a  French  Protestant  clergyman. 

COQUEREL,  CHARLES  AUGUSTIN  (1797-1851),  a  French 
author,  brother  of  the  preceding.  The  brothers  were  brought  up  by 
their  aunt. 

CORNEILLE,  PIERRE  (1606-1684),  the  father  of  the  classical 
drama  in  France. 

CORNEILLE,  THOMAS  (1625-1709),  younger  brother  of  the 
preceding,  also  a  dramatist,  but  less  eminent. 

CORTES,  HERNANDO  (1485-1547),  the  conqueror  of  Mexico, 
son  of  Martin  Cortes. 

CORWIN,  THOMAS  (1794-1865),  an  American  statesman, 
younger  son  of  Matthias  Corwin,  for  many  years  a  member  of  the 
Ohio  legislature. 

COUSIN,  VICTOR  (1792-1867),  a  French  philosopher,  son  of 
a  clock-maker. 

COWPER,  WILLIAM  (1731-1800),  an  English  poet.  His  father 
was  a  chaplain  to  George  II. 

CRANMER,  THOMAS  (1489-1556),  the  first  Protestant  arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury.  He  was  the  sixth  of  seven  children  and  an 
orphan  at  fourteen. 

CROMWELL,  OLIVER  (1599-1658),  lord  protector  of  the  Eng- 
lish commonwealth,  fifth  child  of  Judge  Robert  Cromwell,  who  was  a 
younger  son  of  Henry  Cromwell,  who  was  nephew  of  the  earl  of 


290 


APPENDIX. 


Essex.  Robert  Cromwell  married  the  widow  Linne  (1560 — ),  who 
was  descended  from  the  youngest  son  of  Alexander,  lord  steward  of 
Scotland  and  founder  of  the  house  of  Stuart.  "This  lady  and  Charles 
I  were  eighth  cousins  and  her  son  Oliver  was  three  generations  nearer 
to  Alexander  than  was  the  king  whom  he  supplanted."  (Appleton's 
Cyclopedia.)  "The  character  of  Cromwell  in  some  of  its  noblest 
aspects  seems  to  have  been  inherited  from  his  mother."  (Encyclopedia 
Britannica.) 

CUVIER,  GEORGES  CHRETIEN  LEOPOLD  FREDERIC 
DAGOBERT  (1769-1832)  [A2],  a  French  naturalist.  The  grand- 
father had  two  sons,  the  younger  of  whom  entered  a  Swiss  regiment 
in  the  service  of  France  and  rose  to  high  rank.  He  married  at  the 
age  of  50.  Georges  was  his  second  son. 

CUVIER,  FREDERIC  (1773-1838)  [A3],  a  French  naturalist 
and  mechanic,  brother  of  the  preceding. 

D'ALEMBERT,  JEAN  LE  ROND  (1717-1783)  [37],  a  French 
mathematician,  illegitimate  son  of  the  poet  Philippe  Nencault  Des- 
touches  (1680-1754). 

DALTON,  JOHN  (1766-1844),  an  English  chemist,  author  of  the 
atomic  theory.  He  was  the  youngest  child  of  Joseph  Dalton,  who  was 
married  in  1755. 

DANA  FAMILY.    See  page  185. 

DANTE  DEGLI  ALIGHIERI  (1265-1321),  an  Italian  poet, 
youngest  child  of  Judge  Alighiero,  who  was  one  of  seven  sons  of 
Bellincione,  who  was  the  younger  of  two  sons  of  Alighiero,  who  was 
the  elder  of  two  sons  of  Cacciaguida,  who  was  a  youngest  son,  and 
who  died  at  "mature  age"  in  1147. 

DARWIN.     See  page  137. 

DAUBENTON,  LOUIS  JEAN  MARIE  (1716-1800),  a  French 
naturalist,  son  of  Jean  Daubenton,  a  notary.  He  was  an  orphan  at  20. 

DAVID  (B.  C.  1085-1015)  [A2],  second  king  of  Israel,  eighth 
(or  eleventh,  I  Sam.  XVI,  6,  10)  son  of  Jesse. 

DAVID,  JACQUES  LOUIS  (1748-1825),  a  French  painter. 
DAVID,  PIERRE  JEAN  (1789-1856),  a  French  sculptor. 


APPENBIX.  291 

DAVIS,  JEFFERSON  (1808-1889)  [A],  president  of  the  South- 
ern Confederacy,  youngest  of  ten  children  of  Samuel  Davis  [A?],  who 
was  son  of  Evan  Davis,  the  youngest  of  three  brothers  who  came  to 
America  early  in  the  i8th  century. 

DAVY,  SIR  HUMPHREY  (1778-1829),  an  English  chemist, 
eldest  son  of  Robert  Davy,  a  wood  carver.  He  was  an  orphan  at  16. 

DAVY,  JOHN  (1790-1868),  an  English  physiologist  and  anato- 
mist, only  brother  of  Sir  Humphrey.  He  was  an  orphan  at  4. 

DECATUR,  STEPHEN,  JR.  (1779-1820)  [28],  an  American 
naval  officer,  son  of  Stephen  Decatur  (1751-1808),  also  a  naval  officer. 

DEFOE,  DANIEL  (1661-1731),  an  English  novelist  and  political 
writer,  son  of  a  butcher,  James  Foe,  who  was  a  younger  son. 

DELAMBRE,  JEAN  BAPTISTS  JOSEPH  (1749-1822),  a 
French  astronomer. 

DELAVIGNE,  JEAN  FRANCOIS  CASIMIR  (1793-1843),  a 
French  lyric  and  dramatic  poet. 

DELUC,  JEAN  ANDRE  (1727-1817),  a  Swiss  physicist,  ranked 
by  Cuvier  as  one  of  the  first  geologists  of  his  age.  He  was  son  of 
Francois  Deluc,  an  author. 

DEMBRINSKI,  HENRYK  (1791-1864),  a  Polish  general. 

DEMOSTHENES  (B.  C.  385-322),  an  Athenian  statesman,  an 
orphan  at  7. 

DEMPSTER,  THOMAS  (1579-1625)  [A2],  a  Scottish  professor, 
the  24th  of  29  children  by  the  same  mother. 

DENHAM,  SIR  JOHN  (1615-1668)  [56],  an  English  poet,  only 
son  of  Sir  John  Denham  (1559 — ). 

DESAULT,  PIERRE  JOSEPH  (1744-1795),  a  French  surgeon. 

DESCARTES,  RENE  (1596-1650),  a  French  philosopher,  young- 
est son  of  a  councillor  of  the  parliament  of  Rennes,  who  belonged  to 
the  younger  branch  of  a  noble  family. 

DESMOULINS,  BENOIT  CAMILLE  (1760-1794),  a  French 
revolutionist. 


292  APPENDIX. 

DE  SOTO,  FERNANDO  (1496-1542),  a  Spanish  explorer. 

DIBDIN,  CHARLES  (1745-1814)  [A3],  an  English  song-  writer 
and  composer.  He  was  the  i8th  child. 

DICKENS,  CHARLES  (1812-1870)  [26],  an  English  novelist, 
the  second  of  eight  children  of  John  Dickens  (1786 — ). 

DIDEROT,  DENIS  (1713-1784),  a  French  writer  and  philosopher, 
son  of  a  cutler. 

DIOCLETIAN  (245-313),  a  Roman  emperor.  His  parents  were 
of  the  humblest  class. 

DISRAELI,  BENJAMIN  (1805-1881)  [39],  an  English  states- 
man and  author,  son  of  Isaac  Disraeli  (1766-1848),  an  author  who 
was  the  only  son  of  an  elderly  man. 

DODDRIDGE,  PHILIP  (1702-1751)  [A3],  an  English  clergy- 
man, the  youngest  of  twenty  children  of  Daniel  Doddridge,  who  was 
son  of  Rev.  John  Doddridge. 

DOLLINGER,  JOHANN  JOSEPH  IGNAZ  (1799—)  [29],  a 
German  theologian,  son  of  Ignaz  Dollinger  (1770-1841),  a  German 
physiologist. 

DOMINIC  (1170-1221),  a  saint  of  the  Roman  Catholic  church, 
and  founder  of  the  order  of  friar  preachers. 

DOUGLASS,  STEPHEN  ARNOLD  (1813-1861),  an  American 
statesman,  son  of  a  physician  and  an  orphan  at  the  age  of  two  months. 

DRAPER,  JOHN  WILLIAMj  (1811-1882),  an  American  chemist 
and  physiologist,  son  of  Rev.  John  C.  Draper. 

DREBBEL,  CORNELIS  VAN  (1572-1634),  a  Dutch  philosopher 
and  inventor. 

DRUMMOND,  THOMAS  (1797-1840),  a  British  naval  officer 
and  inventor. 

DRYDEN,  JOHN  (1631-1700),  an  English  poet,  eldest  of  four- 
teen children  of  Erasmus  Dryden,  who  was  third  son  of  Sir  Erasmus 
Dryden. 

DUDEVANT,  AMANTINE  LUCILLE  AURORE  DUPLIN 
(George  Sand)  (1804-1876),  a  French  novelist,  daughter  of  Maurice 


APPENDIX.  293 

Dtiplin  who  died  when  she  was  four  years  old.  Her  maternal  grand- 
mother was  an  illegitimate  daughter  of  Marshal  Saxe  (1696-1750). 
This  is  [108-^3],  two  steps  of  which  are  female. 

DUJARDIN,  FELIX  (1801-1860),  a  French  naturalist,  son  of  a 
poor  watchmaker. 

DUMAS,  ALEXANDRE  DAVY  (1803-1870)  [41],  a  French 
dramatist  and  novelist,  author  of  "Count  of  Monte  Cristo."  His 
father  (1762-1806)  [52],  of  the  same  name,  was  a  son  of  the  Marquis 
de  la  Pailleterie  (1710 — )  by  a  negro  girl.  The  younger  Dumas  was 
born  in  1824  [21]. 

DUNDAS,  HENRY  (1741-1811),  a  British  statesman. 

DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS,  PIERRE  SAMUEL  (1739-1817), 
a  French  economist  and  statesman. 

DURER,  ALBRECHT  (1471-1528),  a  German  painter  and  en- 
graver, son  of  a  Hungarian  goldsmith. 

EARLE,  PLINY  (1809 — )  [47],  an  American  physician,  son  of 
Pliny  Earle  (1762-1832),  an  American  inventor. 

EATON,  AMOS  (1776-1842),  an  American  physicist. 

EDISON,  THOMAS  ALVA  (1847—)  [43].  an  American  in- 
ventor, son  of  Samuel  Edison  (1804 — )  and  Nancy  Elliott  (1810 — ). 

EDWARDS,  JONATHAN  (1703-1758)  [34],  an  American  divine, 
son  of  Rev.  Timothy  Edwards  (1669 — )  [22],  who  was  son  of  Richard 
Edwards  (1647 — )  [A?],  who  was  son  of  William  Edwards. 

ELIZABETH  (1533-1603)  [42],  queen  of  England,  daughter  of 
Henry  VIII  (1491-1547)  [37],  who  was  son  of  Henry  VII  (1456- 
1509),  the  first  of  the  Tudors. 

ELLSWORTH,  OLIVER  (1745-1807),  an  American  statesman 
and  jurist.  His  son,  William  Wolcott  Ellsworth  (1791-1868)  [46], 
was  governor  of  Connecticut  and  judge  of  the  supreme  court  of  that 
state. 

EMERSON,  RALPH  WALDO  (1803-1882)  [34],  an  American 
philosopher  and  poet,  son  of  Rev.  William  Emerson  (1769 — )  [26], 


294 


APPENDIX. 


who  was  son  of  Rev.  William  Emerson  (1743—)    [A],  who  was  son 
of  Rev.  Joseph  Emerson,  born  about  1698. 

EMMET,  ROBERT  (17801803),  an  Irish  revolutionist  of  un- 
doubted mental  ability.  His  brother,  Thomas  Addis  Emmet  (1764- 
1827),  a  politician  and  lawyer,  was  16  years  his  senior.  Thomas  was 
the  second  son  of  Dr.  Robert  Emmet.  Robert  was  the  third  and 
youngest  son. 

ENCKE,  JOHANN  FRANZ  (1791-1865),  a  German  astronomer, 
son  of  a  clergyman. 

ENDLICHER,  STEPHEN  LADISLAUS  (1804-1849),  a  Hun- 
garian botanist  and  linguist. 

ENFANTIN,  BARTHELEMY  PROSPER  (1796-1864),  one  of 
the  founders  of  St.  Simonism,  son  of  a  banker. 

EPAMINONDAS  (B.  C.  418-362),  a  Theban  statesman,  son  of 
Polymnis. 

EPICURUS  (B.  C.  342-270),  a  Greek  philosopher. 

ERASMUS,  DESIDERIUS  (1467-1536),  a  Dutch  theological 
and  classical  scholar  and  writer,  the  natural  son  of  Gerard  Praet  and 
the  daughter  of  a  physician.  He  was  an  orphan  at  an  early  age. 

ERICSSON,  JOHN  (1803-1889),  a  Swedish- American  inventor 
and  engineer. 

ERSKINE,  THOMAS  (1750-1823)  [40],  a  British  jurist  and 
statesman,  third  and  youngest  son  of  Henry  David  Erskine  (1710 — ) 
[38],  who  was  son  of  David  Erskine  (1672 — ). 

EUGENE,  PRINCE  (1663-1736),  a  French  general  in  the  service 
of  Austria,  fifth  and  youngest  son  of  Prince  Eugene  Maurice. 

EULER,  LEONHARD  (1707-1783),  a  Swiss  mathematician. 
EURIPIDES  (B.  C  480-406),  an  Athenian  tragic  poet. 

EVANS,  OLIVER  (1755-1819),  an  American  inventor  and  engi- 
neer. 

EVARTS,  WILLIAM  MAXWELL  (1818-1900)  [37],  an  Ameri- 
can lawyer,  son  of  Jeremiah  Evarts  (1781-1831),  secretary  of  Ameri- 


APPENDIX.  295 

can   foreign  missions.     His   mother    [60?]    was  daughter  of  Roger 
Williams  (1721-1793). 

EVERETT,  EDWARD  (1794-1865),  an  American  statesman, 
orator  and  author,  son  of  Rev.  Oliver  Everett  who  was  pastor  of  the 
Boston  New  South  Church  from  1782  to  1799. 

EWING,  THOMAS  (1789-1871),  an  American  statesman. 

EYCK,  JAN  VAN  (1390-1441)  [A],  a  Flemish  painter.  His 
brother,  Hubert  van  Eyck  (1366-1426),  was  also  a  painter  and  24 
years  his  senior. 

FARADAY,  MICHAEL  (1791-1867)  [30],  an  English  chemist 
and  natural  philosopher,  son  of  James  Faraday  (1761 — )  [about  40], 
a  blacksmith  who  was  son  of  Robert  Faraday,  who  was  born  between 
1708  and  1730. 

FARRAGUT,  DAVID  GLASCOE  (1801-1870)  [46],  an  Ameri- 
can admiral,  son  of  George  Farragut  (1755 — ). 

FENELON,  FRANCOIS  DE  SALIGNAC  DE  LA  MOTHE 
(1651-1715),  a  French  prelate  and  author.  He  was  by  a  second  mar- 
riage "contracted  in  mature  years." 

FERGUSON,  ADAM  (1723-1816),  a  Scottish  philosopher  and 
historian.  He  was  the  youngest  son  of  a  numerous  family. 

FICHTE,  JOHANN  GOTTLIEB  (1762-1814),  a  German  phil- 
osopher, son  of  a  poor  weaver. 

FIELD  FAMILY,  sons  of  David  Dudley  Field  (1781-1867),  an 
American  clergyman.  David  Dudley  Field  (1805-1894)  [24],  a  law- 
yer; Stephen  Johnson  Field  (1816— )  [35],  a  justice  of  the  U.  S. 
Supreme  Court;  Cyrus  West  Field  (1819-1892)  [38],  a  merchant  of 
Atlantic  cable  fame;  Henry  Martyn  Field  (1822 — )  [41],  a  clergyman. 

FIELDING,  HENRY  (1707-1754)  [(125+x)-^],  an  English 
novelist  and  dramatist,  eldest  son  of  Gen.  Edward  Fielding,  who  was 
youngest  son  of  the  Earl  of  Desmond,  who  was  son  of  Earl  of  Den- 
bigh, who  was  born  before  1582. 

FILLMORE,  MILLARD  (1800-1874),  thirteenth  president  of  the 
United  States. 


296 


APPENDIX. 


FISH,  HAMILTO'N  (1808-1893)  [50],  an  American  statesman, 
son  of  Col.  Nicholas  Fish  (1758-1833). 

FITCH,  JOHN  (1743-1798),  an  American  inventor. 
FLAMSTEED,  JOHN  (1646-1719),  an  English  astronomer. 

FLETCHER,  JO'HN  (1579-1625)  [A2?],  an  English  dramatist 
and  poet,  youngest  son  of  Rev.  Richard  Fletcher  who  was  ordained 
in  1550. 

FLOURENS,  MARIE  JEAN  PIERRE  (1794-1867),  a  French 
physiologist. 

FORBES,  DUNCAN  (1685-1747)  [41],  a  Scottish  statesman, 
son  of  Duncan  Forbes  (1644-1744). 

FORBES,  DAVID  (1828-1876),  an  English  geologist,  one  of  nine 
children  of  Edward  Forbes. 

FORBES,  EDWARD  (1815-1854),  an  English  naturalist,  son  of 
Edward  Forbes  and  brother  of  David. 

FORBES,  JAMES  DAVID  (1809-1868),  a  Scottish  physicist, 
fourth  and  youngest  son  of  Sir  William  Forbes. 

FORSTER,  JOHANN  GEORG  ADAM  (1754-1794)  [25],  a 
German  traveler  and  naturalist,  eldest  son  of  Johann  Reinhold  Forster 
(1729-1798),  also  a  traveler  and  naturalist. 

FOURIER,  FRANCOIS  MARIE  CHARLES  (1772-1837),  a 
French  writer  on  social  science,  son  of  a  draper. 

FOX,  CHARLES  JAMES  (1749-1806)  [44],  an  English  states- 
man, son  of  Henry  Fox  (1705—)  [78],  who  was  son  of  Sir  Stephen 
Fox  (1627 — ),  who  was  the  youngest  son  of  William  Fox. 

FRANKLIN,  BENJAMIN.     See  page  102. 

FRANKLIN,  SIR  JOHN  (1786-1847)  [A],  an  English  naval 
officer  and  Arctic  explorer,  I2th  and  youngest  son  of  Wallingham 
Franklin. 

FREDERICK  THE  GREAT  (1712-1786)  [24],  king  of  Prussia, 
son  of  Frederick  William  (1688-1740)  [31],  who  was  son  of  Fred- 
erick I.  (1657-1713)  [37],  who  was  son  of  Frederick  William  of 
Brandenburg  (1620-1688). 


APPENDIX.  297 

FREMONT,  JOHN  CHARLES  (1813-1890)  [A?],  an  Ameri- 
can general  and  explorer.  His  father  was  a  Frenchman  who  was  cap- 
tured by  the  British  during  the  latter  part  of  the  i8th  century.  He 
was  an  orphan  at  the  age  of  5. 

FRESNEL,  AUGUSTIN  JEAN  (1788-1827),  a  French  physicist, 
son  of  an  architect.  He  had  two  younger  brothers,  one  of  whom 
was  an  engineer  and  the  other  of  whom  was  an  orientalist. 

FROEBEL,  FRIEDRICH  (1782-1852),  a  German  educator, 
founder  of  the  kindergarten  system  of  schools.  He  was  youngest  son 
of  a  clergyman  who  died  in  1802.  His  mother  died  in  his  infancy. 

FROISSART,  JEAN  (1337-1410),  a  French  chronicler  and  poet, 
son  of  a  heraldic  painter. 

FROUDE,  JAMES  ANTHONY  (1818-1894),  an  English  his- 
torian, youngest  [  ?]  son  of  Robert  Hurrell  Froude,  archdeacon  of 
Totness. 

FROUDE,  WILLIAM,  (1810-1879),  an  English  engineer,  fourth 
son  of  archdeacon  Froude  and  an  elder  brother  of  the  preceding. 

FULTON,  ROBERT  (1765-1815),  an  American  inventor.  He 
was  an  orphan  at  the  age  of  3.  Had  cousin  32  years  older. 

GAINSBOROUGH,  THOMAS  (1727-1788)  [A?],  an  English 
landscape  and  portrait  painter,  youngest  of  nine  children  of  John 
Gainsborough. 

GALILEO  (1564-1642)  [31],  an  Italian  philosopher  and  mathe- 
matician, son  of  Vincenzo  Galilei  (1533-1591),  who  was  also  a  phil- 
osopher, a  man  of  learning  and  the  author  of  a  number  of  treatises  on 
music. 

GALL,  FRANZ  JOSEPH  (1758-1828),  a  German  physician,  the 
founder  of  phrenology. 

GALLATIN,  ALBERT  (1761-1849),  a  Swiss- American  states- 
man, son  of  Jean  Gallatin,  who  was  a  Geneva  merchant  and  councillor 
of  state.  He  was  an  orphan  in  infancy. 

GAMBETTA,  LEON  (1838-1882),  a  French  statesman,  son  of  a 
grocer. 


298  APPENDIX. 

GARIBALDI,  GIUSEPPE  (1807-1882),  an  Italian  patriot,  be- 
longed to  a  family  of  seamen. 

GARRICK,  DAVID  (1716-1779),  an  English  actor,  son  of  Peter 
Garrick  who,  as  a  child,  escaped  the  persecution  (about  1687)  of 
Huguenots  in  France. 

GARRISON,  WILLIAM  LLOYD  (1804-1879)  [about  31],  an 
American  abolitionist,  son  of  Abijah  Garrison.  His  mother  was 
Frances  Maria  Lloyd  (1776 — ). 

GAUSS,  KARL  FRIEDRICH  (1777-1855),  a  German  mathe- 
matician. 

GAY-LUSSAC,  JOSEPH  LOUIS  (1778-1850),  a  French  chemist. 
GENGHIS  KHAN  (1160-1227),  an  Asiatic  conqueror. 

GENOVESI,  ANTONIO  (1712-1769),  an  Italian  philosopher 
and  political  economist. 

GEOFFROY  SAINT-HELAIRE,  ETIENNE  (1772-1844),  a 
French  zoologist.  His  son  Isidore  (1805-1861)  [33]  was  also  a 
zoologist. 

GERANDO,  JOSEPH  MARIE  DE  (1772-1842),  a  French  phil- 
osopher and  statesman. 

GIBBON,  EDWARD  (1737-1794)  [71-^-2],  an  English  historian, 
the  eldest  and  only  survivor  of  six  sons,  and  grandson  of  Edward 
Gibbon  (1666—). 

GIFFORD,  WILLIAM  (1757-1826),  an  English  author,  an  orphan 
in  childhood. 

GIOBERTI,  VINCENZO  (1801-1852),  an  Italian  philosopher. 

GIRARD,  STEPHEN  (1750-1831),  an  American  merchant  and 
banker. 

GIRARDIN,  EMILE  DE  (1806-1881),  a  French  journalist,  nat- 
ural son  of  Count  Alexandre  de  Girardin  and  Madame  Dupuy,  the 
wife  of  a  counsellor. 

GLADSTONE,  WILLIAM  EWART  (1809-1899)  [45],  a  British 
statesman,  fourth  son  of  Sir  John  Gladstone  (1764 — )  [32],  who  was 
son  of  Thomas  Gladstone  (1732 — ). 


APPENDIX.  299 

GLUCK,  CHRISTOPH  WILIBALD  VON  (1714-1787),  a  Ger- 
man composer,  son  of  Alexander  Johannes  Klukh. 

GODWIN,  WILLIAM  (1756-1836),  an  English  author,  son  of  a 
dissenting  clergyman. 

GOETHE,  JOHANN  WOLFGANG  VON  (1749-1832)  [39],  a 
German  author,  poet  and  philosopher,  son  of  Johann  Kaspar  Goethe 
(1710  —  )  [53],  an  imperial  councillor  who  was  son  of  Friedrich  Goethe 
(1657  —  ),  who  married  a  widow  and  who  was  son  of  Hans  Christian 
Goethe,  a  blacksmith.  His  mother  was  Katherina  Elizabeth  Textor 
(1731  —  )  [38],  daughter  of  Johann  Wolfgang  Textor  (1693  —  ),  a 
lawyer.  Other  ancestors  of  his  mother  were  a  lawyer,  a  professor, 
a  councillor,  and  a  government  official. 

GOLDONI,  CARLO  (1707-1793),  an  Italian  dramatist,  son  of  a 
physician. 

GOLDSMITH,  OLIVER  (1728-1774)  [38?],  an  English  author, 
fifth  child  of  Rev.  Charles  Goldsmith  and  Anne,  daughter  of  Rev. 
Oliver  Jones.  Charles  Goldsmith  went  to  Trinity  College  in  1707  and 
was  probably  born  about 


GORDON,  CHARLES  GEORGE  (1833-1885),  known  as  "Chi- 
nese Gordon,"  fourth  son  of  Gen.  Henry  William  Gordon. 

GORGEY,  ARTHUR  (1818—  ),  a  Hungarian  general. 

GRACCHUS,  TIBERIUS  SEMPRONIUS  (B.  C.  168-133)  [42], 
a  Roman  statesman,  son  of  Tiberius  Gracchus  (B.  C.  210  —  )  and 
Cornelia,  daughter  of  Scipio  Africanus  (B.  C.  234-183). 

GRACCHUS,  CAIUS  SEMPRONIUS  (B.  C.  159-121)  [51],  a 
younger  brother  of  the  preceding  and  said  to  have  been  a  statesman 
of  greater  power. 

GRANT,  ULYSSES  S.  (1822-1885)  [28],  an  American  general, 
son  of  Jesse  R.  Grant  (1794  —  )  [46],  who  was  son  of  Noah  Grant 
(I748-). 

GRANVELLE,  ANTOINE  PERRENOT  (1517-1586),  a  Spanish 
statesman,  son  of  Nicolas  Perrenot,  the  chancellor  and  minister  of 
Charles  V. 


300  APPENDIX. 

GRATTAN,  HENRY  (1746-1820),  an  Irish  statesman  and  orator, 
son  of  a  barrister. 

GRAY,  ASA  (1810-1888)  [25],  an  American  botanist,  son  of 
Moses  Gray  (1785—)  [40],  who  was  son  of  Moses  Wiley  Gray 
(I745_)  [48],  who  was  son  of  Robert  Gray  (1697—).  See  page 
102. 

GRAY,  THOMAS  (1716-1771),  an  English  poet  and  naturalist, 
author  of  the  "Elegy  written  in  a  Country  Churchyard,"  son  of  Philip 
Gray. 

GREELEY,  HORACE  (1811-1872),  an  American  journalist,  son 
of  Zaccheus  Greeley. 

GROTIUS,  HUGO  (1583-1645),  a  Dutch  jurist. 

GROVE,  SIR  WILLIAM  ROBERT  (1811— ),  an  English  physi- 
cist and  inventor. 

GUESS,  GEORGE  (1770-1843),  a  half-breed  Cherokee  Indian, 
inventor  of  the  Cherokee  alphabet,  said  to  be  the  most  perfect  alphabet 
in  existence. 

GUIZOT,  FRANCOIS  PIERRE  GUILLAUME  (1787-1874),  a 
French  statesman  and  historian,  son  of  a  distinguished  lawyer  who 
died  on  the  scaffold  in  1794. 

GUNTER,  EDMUND  (1581-1626),  an  English  mathematician, 
son  of  a  Welshman.  He  was  inventor  of  Gunter's  Chain,  Gunter's 
Line,  Gunter's  Quadrant,  and  Gunter's  Scale. 

GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS  (1594-1632)  [44],  king  of  Sweden, 
son  of  Charles  IX.  (1550-1611  [54],  who  was  youngest  son  of  Gus- 
tavus  Vasa  (1496-1560),  who  was  from  a  younger  branch  of  the  noble 
house  of  Vasa. 

GUTENBERG,  JOHANN  (1400-1468),  the  reputed  inventor  of 
printing.  His  family  was  of  noble  lineage. 

GUYON,  JEANNE  MARIE  BOUVIER  DE  LA  MOTTE  (1648- 
1717),  a  French  mystical  writer,  daughter  of  Claude  Bouvier. 

HAECKEL,  ERNST  HEINRICH  (1834—),  a  German  natu- 
ralist. 


APPENDIX.  301 

HAHNEMANN,  SAMUEL  CHRISTIAN  FRIEDRICH  (1755- 
1843),  a  German  physician,  founder  of  the  homoeopathic  system  of 
medicine. 

HALE,  SIR  MATTHEW  (1609-1676),  an  English  jurist,  son  of 
a  lawyer  and  an  orphan  at  an  early  age. 

HALL,  JAMES  (1811 — ),  an  American  geologist  and  palaeon- 
tologist. 

HALL,  ROBERT  (1764-1831)  [A2],  one  of  the  greatest  of  Eng- 
lish pulpit  orators.  He  was  youngest  of  a  family  of  fourteen. 

HALLER,  ALBRECHT  VON  (1708-1777),  a  Swiss  physiologist. 

HALLEY,  EDMUND  (1656-1742),  an  English  astronomer,  son 
of  Edmund  Halley. 

HAMILTON,  ALEXANDER  (1757-1804)  [A?],  an  American 
statesman,  youngest  son  of  James  Hamilton,  who  was  son  of  Alexan- 
der Hamilton.  His  mother  was  the  daughter  of  a  physician,  had  mar- 
ried a  physician,  and  had  obtained  a  divorce  before  she  married  James 
Hamilton.  She  bore  her  last  husband  many  sons,  of  whom  only 
Thomas  and  Alexander  lived  to  maturity.  She  died  while  Alexander 
was  a  child. 

HAMILTON,  SIR  WILLIAM  (1788-1856)  [30],  a  Scottish 
philosopher,  son  of  William  Hamilton  (1758-1790),  a  surgeon  who 
was  son  of  Thomas  Hamilton,  who  was  a  professor  of  anatomy  at 
Glasgow  in  1757  and  who  was  a  younger  son. 

HAMILTON,  SIR  WILLIAM  ROWAN  (1805-1865),  a  British 
philosopher,  fourth  child  of  Archibald  Hamilton,  a  solicitor. 

HAMPDEN,  JOHN  (1594-1643),  an  English  statesman,  son  of 
William  Hampden,  a  member  of  parliament  who  died  during  his  son's 
childhood.  His  mother  was  Elizabeth  Cromwell,  aunt  of  Oliver  Crom- 
well (1599). 

HANDEL,  GEORG  FRIEDRICH  (1685-1759)  [63],  a  German- 
English  composer,  son  of  Georg  Handel  (1622-1697)  [40],  a  surgeon 
who  was  son  of  Valentin  Handel  (1582-1636). 

HANIBAL  (B.  C.  247-183)  [23?],  a  Carthaginian  general,  son  of 


302  APPENDIX. 

Hamilcar  Barca  (27O?-229),  the  Carthaginian  hero  of  the  first  Punic 
war. 

HARE,  ROBERT  (1781-1858),  an  American  physicist. 

HARRISON,  BENJAMIN  (1833-1900)  [6o-=-2],  president  of  the 
United  States,  grandson  of  Pres.  William  Henry  Harrison  (1773- 
1841),  who  was  third  and  youngest  son  of  Gov.  Benjamin  Harrison. 

HARTLEY,  DAVID  (1705-1757),  an  English  philosopher. 
HARTMANN,  EDUARD  VON  (1842—),  a  German  philosopher. 

HARVEY,  WILLIAM  (1578-1657),  an  English  physician,  dis- 
coverer of  the  circulation  of  blood.  He  was  the  second  child  and 
eldest  son  of  Thomas  Harvey  by  his  second  wife,  Jane  Halke. 

HASTINGS,  WARREN  (1732-1818)  [24],  an  English  general 
and  governor-general  of  India,  son  of  Pynaston  Hastings  (1708 — ), 
who  was  said  to  have  married  at  the  age  of  15  and  who  was  the 
youngest  son  of  Rev.  Pynaston  Hastings. 

HAUY,  RENE  JUST  (1743-1822),  a  French  mineralogist  of 
humble  parentage. 

HAWTHORNE,  NATHANIEL  (1804-1864)  [29],  an  American 
author,  son  of  Capt.  Nathaniel  Hawthorne  (1775 — )  [44],  who  was 
son  of  Daniel  Hawthorne  (1731 — )  [40],  who  was  son  of  Joseph 
Hawthorne  (1691—)  [50],  who  was  son  of  Judge  John  Hawthorne 
(1641 — ).  Hawthorne's  mother  was  daughter  of  Richard  Manning 
(1755 — )  [52L  wno  was  son  of  John  Manning  (1703 — ). 

HAYDEN,  JOSEPH  (1732-1809),  a  German  composer.  Ap- 
pleton's  Cyclopedia  states  that  he  was  the  eldest  of  twenty,  the  Enc. 
Britannica  says  he  was  the  second  of  twelve. 

HEGEL,  GEORG  WILHELM  FRIEDRICH  (1770-1831),  a 
German  philosopher. 

HEINE,  HEINRICH  (1799-1856),  a  German  poet  and  critic,  of 
Jewish  parentage. 

HELMHOLTZ,  HERMAN  LUDWIG  FERDINAND  (1821- 
1894),  a  German  physicist  and  physiologist,  son  of  Ferdinand  Helm- 


APPENDIX.  303 

holtz,  a  teacher  of  philology  and  philosophy,  and  a  man  of  high  learn- 
ing and  great  culture. 

HELMONT,  JAN  BAPTISTA  VAN  (1577-1644),  a  Flemish 
physician. 

HELVETIUS,  CLAUDE  ADRIEN  (1715-1771)  [30],  a  French 
philosopher,  son  of  John  Claude  Adrien  Helvetius  (1685-1755)  [55]. 
who  was  physician  to  the  queen  of  France  and  who  was  son  of  John 
Adrian  Helvetius  (1630-1709),  a  physician  who  was  son  of  John 
Frederick  Helvetius,  also  a  physician. 

HENRY,  PATRICK  (1736-1799),  an  American  orator  and  states- 
man, a  younger  son  of  Col.  John  Henry  and  the  widow  of  Col.  John 
Syme. 

HERDER,  JOHANN  GOTTFRIED  VON  (1744-1803),  a  Ger- 
man author,  son  of  a  schoolmaster. 

HERODOTUS  (B.  C.  484-420),  a  Greek  historian  known  as  the 
father  of  history. 

HERSCHEL,  SIR  JOHN  FREDERICK  WILLIAM  (1792- 
1871)  [54],  an  English  astronomer  and  physicist,  son  of  Sir  William 
Herschel  (1738-1822)  [31],  an  English  astronomer  who  was  son  of 
Isaac  Herschel  (1707 — )  [A],  who  was  youngest  son  of  Abraham 
Herschel,  who  was  son  of  Hans  Herschel,  who  quitted  Moravia  early 
in  the  I7th  century. 

HERSCHEL,  CAROLINE  LUCRETIA  (1750-1848)  [43],  an 
astronomer,  sister  of  Sir  William  Herschel. 

HOBBES,  THOMAS  (1588-1679),  an  English  philosopher,  second 
son  of  Rev.  Thomas  Hobbs. 

HOGARTH,  WILLIAM  (169871764),  an  English  painter,  only 
son  of  Richard  Hogarth,  who  was  a  teacher  and  who  was  a  third  son. 

HOLBACH,  PAUL  HENRI  THYRY  (1723-1789),  a  French 
philosopher. 

HOLBEIN,  HANS,  called  the  younger  (1497-1543),  a  German 
painter,  son  of  Hans  Holbein  the  Elder,  who  was  born  between  1450 
and  1460  and  who  was  also  a  painter. 


304  APPENDIX. 

HOLMES,  OLIVER  WENDELL  (1809-1894)  [46],  an  Ameri- 
can physician  and  author,  son  of  Rev.  Abiel  Holmes  (1763-1837). 

HOMER,  a  Greek  poet,  lived  about  B.  C.  900. 

HOOD,  THOMAS  (1798-1845),  an  English  poet,  son  of  a  book- 
seller and  an  orphan  at  12. 

HOOKER,  SIR  WILLIAM  JACKSON  (1785-1865),  an  English 
botanist,  son  of  Joseph  Hooker. 

HOUSTON,  SAM  (1793-1863)  [A],  an  American  soldier,  young- 
est of  a  family  of  nine. 

HOWARD,  CHARLES,  Lord  Effingham  (1536-1624)  [60?],  an 
English  admiral,  son  of  William  Howard  (1476? — )  [33?],  lord  high 
admiral,  who  was  son  of  Thomas  Howard  (1443 — ),  the  second  duke 
of  Norfolk.  N.  B. — William  had  an  elder  brother,  Thomas,  born 

I473- 

HOWARD,  JOHN  (1726-1790),  an  English  philanthropist,  son 
of  John  Howard,  and  an  orphan  at  17. 

HOWE,  ELIAS  (1819-1867),  inventor  of  the  sewing  machine, 
son  of  a  farmer  and  miller. 

HUBER,  VICTOR  AIME  (1800-1869)  [36],  a  German  politico- 
economical  writer,  son  of  Ludwig  Ferdinand  Huber  (1764-1804)  [37], 
an  editor  who  was  son  of  Michael  Huber  (1727-1804),  a  German 
scholar. 

HUC,  EVARISTE  REGIS  (1813-1860),  a  French  missionary  and 
traveler. 

HUGHES,  JOHN  (1797-1864),  an  Irish-American  archbishop,  the 
youngest  of  three  sons  of  a  farmer. 

HUGO,  VICTOR  (1802-1885)  [29],  a  French  poet  and  novelist, 
youngest  son  of  Gen.  Joseph  L.  S.  Hugo  (1773-1828). 

HUMBOLDT,  FRIEDRICH  HEINRICH  ALEXANDER  VON 
(1769-1859)  [49],  the  most  eminent  of  German  naturalists,  youngest 
son  of  Major  Alexander  Georg  Humboldt  (1720-1779). 

HUMBOLDT,  KARL  WILHELM  VON  (1767-1835)  [47],  a 
German  scholar,  brother  of  the  preceding. 


APPENDIX.  305 

HUME,  DAVID  (1711-1776)  [(7i+x)-r-2],  a  Scottish  historian, 
youngest  child  of  David  Hume  and  an  orphan  in  infancy.  His  ma- 
ternal grandfather  was  David  Falconer  (1640 — ). 

HUME,  JOSEPH  (1777-1855),  a  British  statesman,  younger  son 
of  a  shipmaster.  He  was  an  orphan  at  9. 

HUNT,  JAMES  HENRY  LEIGH  (1784-1859),  an  English  poet 
and  author.  His  father  was  a  Philadelphia  lawyer  prior  to  the  Revo- 
lutionary war.  He  was  youngest  of  a  large  family. 

HUNT,  THOMAS  STERRY  (1826-1892),  an  American  chemist, 
geologist  and  mineralogist. 

HUNTER,  JOHN  (1728-1793)  [65],  a  British  surgeon  and 
physiologist,  ranked  as  the  "greatest  surgical  operator"  of  his  time, 
and  "among  the  greatest  of  modern  natural  philosophers."  He  was 
the  youngest  son  of  John  Hunter  (1663 — ). 

HUNTER,  WILLIAM  (1718-1783)  [55],  an  eminent  physician 
and  anatomist,  elder  brother  of  the  preceding. 

HUSS,  JOHN  (1373-1415),  a  Bohemian  religious  reformer.  He 
was  an  orphan  at  an  early  age. 

HUTTEN,  ULRICH  VON  (1488-1523),  a  German  scholar  and 
reformer. 

HUXLEY,  THOMAS  HENRY  (1825-1895)  [A],  an  English 
naturalist,  seventh  and  youngest  surviving  child  of  George  Huxley, 
who  was  second  son  of  Thomas  Huxley,  who  was  married  in  1773. 

HUYGENS,  CHRISTIAN  (1629-1695)  [33],  a  Dutch  astronomer 
and  natural  philosopher,  second  son  of  Constantine  Huygens  (1596- 
1687),  a  poet  and  diplomatist  who  was  son  of  Christian  Huygens, 
secretary  of  the  state  council. 

HYPATIA  (370-415),  a  Greek  Neo-Platonic  philosopher,  daugh- 
ter of  Theon,  a  distinguished  mathematician  and  astronomer. 
IRVING,  EDWARD   (1792-1834),  a  Scottish  preacher. 

IRVING,  WASHINGTON  (1783-1859)  [52],  an  American  au- 
thor, son  of  William  Irving  (1731 — )  [55+x],  who  was  son  of  Magnus 
Irving,  who  was  of  legal  age  in  1697. 


306  APPENDIX. 

ISMAIL  PASHA  (1830—)  [41],  khedive  of  Egypt,  son  of  Abra- 
ham Pasha  (1789-1848). 

ITURBIDE,  AUGUSTIN  DE  (1783-1824),  emperor  of  Mexico, 
son  of  Spanish  parents.  He  was  an  orphan  at  15. 

JACKSON,  ANDREW  (1767-1845),  seventh  president  of  the 
United  States.  He  was  a  posthumous  son. 

JACKSON,  CHARLES  THOMAS  (1805-1880),  an  American 
physicist. 

JACOBI,  FRIEDRICH  HEINRICH  (1743-1819),  a  German 
philosopher,  son  of  a  wealthy  merchant.  His  elder  brother,  Johann 
Georg  Jacobi  (1740-1814),  was  a  poet. 

JACQUARD,  JOSEPH  MARIE  (1752-1834),  a  French  mechan- 
ician, inventor  of  the  Jacquard  loom.  He  was  an  orphan  at  20. 

JANSENIUS,  CORNELIUS  (1585-1638),  a  Dutch  theologian. 

JAY,  JOHN  (1745-1829),  an  American  statesman  and  first  chief 
justice  of  the  United  States.  He  was  son  of  Peter  Jay. 

JAY,  WILLIAM  (1789-1858)  [44],  an  American  jurist  and 
philanthropist,  son  of  the  preceding. 

JEFFERSON,  THOMAS  (1743-1826)  [35],  third  president  of 
the  United  States,  son  of  Col.  Peter  Jefferson  (1708 — )  and  Jane 
Randolph,  daughter  of  Isham  Randolph. 

JEFFREY,  FRANCIS  (1773-1850),  a  Scottish  critic,  eldest  son 
of  a  clerk  of  the  court. 

JEFFREYS,  GEORGE  (1648-1689)  [40],  an  English  judge,  son 
of  John  Jeffreys  (1608 — ). 

JENKINSON,  ROBERT  BANKS  (1770-1828)  [43],  a  British 
statesman,  second  earl  of  Liverpool,  son  of  Charles  Jenkinson  (1727- 
1808),  first  earl. 

JENNER,  EDWARD  (1749-1823),  an  English  physician,  in- 
ventor of  vaccination.  He  was  the  third  and  youngest  son  of  Rev. 
Stephen  Jenner,  and  was  an  orphan  at  5. 

JOAN  OF  ARC,  "the  Maid  of  Orleans"  (1411-1431),  a  French 
heroine,  fifth  child  of  poor  parents. 


APPENDIX.  307 

JOHNSON,  SAMUEL  (1709-1784)  [53],  an  English  author, 
son  of  Michael  Johnson  (1656 — ),  a  bookseller. 

JOHNSON,  SIR  WILLIAM  (1715-1774),  a  British  general  and 
colonial  officer,  younger  son  of  Christopher  Johnson. 

JONES,  INIGO  (1572-1652),  an  English  architect  of  humble 
origin. 

JONES,  OWEN  (1809-1874),  an  Engliah  architect,  only  son  of 
Owen  Jones,  a  Welsh  tradesman  who  published  in  1801-7  "Myvyrian 
Archaeology  of  Wales"  in  three  volumes,  which  Matthew  Arnold  de- 
scribes as  a  "great  repository  of  Welsh  literature." 

JONES,  SIR  WILLIAM  (1746-1794),  an  English  orientalist  and 
legal  writer.  He  was  son  of  an  eminent  mathematician  and  an  orphan 
at  3. 

JONSON,  BEN  (1574-1637),  an  English  dramatist,  the  posthu- 
mous son  of  a  clergyman.  The  father  lost  his  estate  about  20  years 
before  his  son's  birth. 

JOSEPH  (B.  C.  1745-1635)  [92],  prime  minister  of  Egypt,  son 
of  Jacob  (B.  C.  1837-1689)  [59],  who  was  son  of  Isaac  (B.  C.  1896- 
1760)  [100],  who  was  son  of  Abraham  (B.  C.  1996-1821). 

JOUFFROY,  THEODORE  SIMON  (1796-1842),  a  French 
philosopher. 

JOULE,  JAMES  PRESCOTT  (1818— ),  [34]  an  English  natu- 
ral philosopher,  son  of  Benjamin  Joule  (1784 — ). 

JUAREZ,  BENITO  PABLO  (1806-1872),  president  of  Mexico, 
and  an  orphan  at  an  early  age. 

JUDSON,  ADONIRAM  (1788-1850),  an  American  missionary, 
son  of  Rev.  Adoniram  Judson. 

DE  JUSSIEU  FAMILY,  see  page  117. 

JUSTIN  and  JUSTINIAN,  Byzantine  emperors,  son£  of  poor  bar- 
barian parents. 

KAMEHAMEHA  III.  (1814-1854),  [61]  a  sovereign  of  the  Ha- 
waiian Islands,  son  of  Kamehameha  I.,  the  Great  (1753-1819). 


308  APPENDIX. 

KANT,  IMMANUEL  (1724-1804),  a  German  metaphysician, 
fourth  of  eleven  children  of  John  George  Cant. 

KAULBACH,  WILHELM  VON  (1805-1874),  a  German  painter, 
son  of  poor  parents. 

KEAN,  EDMUND  (1787-1833),  an  English  actor. 

KEATS,  JOHN  (1795-1821),  an  English  poet,  eldest  son  of 
Thomas  Keats. 

KEMBLE  FAMILY.  Roger  Kemble  (1721-1802),  was  the  found- 
er of  the  family  and  had  twelve  children.  Mrs.  Sarah  Siddons  (1755- 
1831)  [34],  was  the  eldest.  John  Philip  Kemble  (1757-1823)  [36], 
was  an  actor.  George  Stephen  Kemble  (1758-1822)  [37],  was  an 
actor.  Elizabeth  (Mrs.  Whitlock)  (1761-1836)  [40],  was  an  actress. 
Charles  Kemble  (1775-1854)  [54],  nth  child,  actor.  Frances  Anne 
Kemble  (Fanny  Kemble)  (1811-1893)  [36],  was  daughter  of  Charles. 
Adelaide  (Mrs.  Sartoris)  (1820—)  [45],  was  also  daughter  of  Charles. 
John  Mitchel  Kemble  (1807-1857)  [32],  the  eldest  son  of  Charles,  was 
a  historian. 

KENT,  JAMES  (1763-1847)  [34],  an  American  jurist,  son  of 
Moss  Kent  (1729 — )  [25],  a  lawyer  who  was  son  of  Rev.  Elisha  Kent 
(1704—). 

KEPLER,  JOHANN  (1571-1630),  a  German  astronomer,  dis- 
coverer of  the  laws  of  planetary  movements.  His  father  was  of  noble 
origin  but  in  reduced  circumstances. 

KING,  RUFUS  (1755-1827)  [37],  an  American  statesman,  son 
of  Richard  King  (1718 — ),  eldest  son  of  John  King,  who  came  to 
America  early  in  the  i8th  century. 

KINGSLEY,  CHARLES  (1819-1875),  an  English  clergyman,  son 
of  Rev.  Charles  Kingsley. 

KLAPROTH,  HEINRICH  JULIUS  VON  (1783-1835)  [40],  a 
German  traveler  and  orientalist,  son  of  Martin  Heinrich  Klaproth 
(1743-1817),  a  chemist. 

KLOPSTOCK,  FRIEDRICH  GOTTLIEB  (1724-1803),  a  Ger- 
man poet,  son  of  a  public  functionary. 

KNOX,  JOHN  (1505-1572),  a  Scottish  religious  reformer. 


APPENDIX.  309 

KOSCIUSZKO,  THADDEUS  (1746-1817),  a  Polish  patriot. 

KOSSUTH,  LAJOS  (1802-1894),  a  Hungarian  patriot,  son  of  a 
lawyer. 

KOTZEBUE,  AUGUST  FRIEDRICH  FERDINAND  VON 
(1761-1819),  a  German  dramatist.  He  had  distinguished  sons  Otto 
[26],  Moritz  [28],  Paul  [40],  William  [52],  and  Alexander  [54]. 

LAFAYETTE,  MARIE  JEAN  PAUL  ROCH  YVES  GILBERT 
MOTIER  (1757-1834)  [24?],  a  French  general  in  the  American  revo- 
lutionary war.  His  father  was  killed  in  battle  at  the  age  of  25.  La- 
fayette married  at  the  age  of  16. 

LAMARCK,  JEAN  BAPTISTE  PIERRE  ANTOINE  DE  MO- 
NET DE  (1744-1829)  [42],  a  French  zoologist,  botanist  and  palaeon- 
tologist, founder  of  evolution.  Considered  by  Huxley  and  Haeckel  to 
have  been  clearer  headed  than  Cuvier.  He  was  son  of  Jacques  Pierre 
de  Monet  (1702-1760)  [(no-f  x)-=-2],  who  was  grandson  of  the 
Etienne  de  Monet  who  bought  an  estate  in  1592. 

LAMARTINE,  ALPHONSE  MARIE  LOUIS  DE  (1790-1869), 
a  French  poet. 

LAMB,  CHARLES  (1775-1834),  an  English  author,  son  of  John 
Lamb,  a  poet.  The  elder  brother  of  Charles  was  born  in  1763. 

LAMENNAIS,  HUGUES  FELICITE  ROBERT  DE  (1782- 
1854),  a  French  author,  fourth  of  six  children  of  Pierre  Louis  Robert 
Lamennais,  a  merchant  and  ship  owner.  His  mother  died  in  1787. 

LANDSEER,  SIR  EDWIN  (1803-1873)  [34],  an  English  painter, 
youngest  son  of  John  Landseer  (1769-1852),  an  engraver.  The  elder 
sons  were  artists. 

LAO-TSE,  a  Chinese  moral  and  ethical  philosopher,  a  contempor- 
ary of  Confucius.  His  teachings  were  of  the  mildest  and  most  gentle 
character  and  more  nearly  resembled  those  of  Jesus  than  did  the  teach- 
ings of  any  other  person.  His  father  did  not  marry  until  70  years  of 
age. 

LAPLACE,  PIERRE  SIMON  (1749-1827),  a  French  astronomer 
and  mathematician  of  humble  origin. 


3IO  APPENDIX. 

LAVATER,  JOHANN  KASPAR  (1741-1801),  a  Swiss  physiog- 
nomist, son  of  a  physician. 

LAVOISIER,  ANTOINE  LAURENT  (1743-1794),  a  French 
chemist  and  one  of  the  founders  of  modern  chemistry.  He  was  son  of 
a  wealthy  tradesman,  and  at  the  age  of  5  he  lost  his  mother. 

LAW,  EDWARD  (17901871)  [40],  an  English  statesman,  earl 
of  Ellenborough  and  governor-general  of  India.  He  was  son  of  Ed- 
ward Law  (1750-1818)  [47],  a  chief  justice  of  the  king's  bench  who 
was  son  of  Edmund  Law  (1703 — ),  bishop  of  Carlisle. 

LAYARD,  AUSTEN  HENRY  (1817—),  an  English  archaeolo- 
gist and  orientalist. 

LEA,  ISAAC  (1792-1886),  an  American  naturalist  who  was  a 
younger  son.  An  older  brother,  Thomas  Gibson  Lea  (1785-1844),  was 
a  botanist  and  a  still  older  brother  was  a  merchant  in  Philadelphia. 

LE  CONTE,  JOHN  (1818-1891)  [36],  and  JOSEPH  (1823-1891) 
[41],  American  physicists,  sons  of  Louis  Le  Conte  (1782 — ). 

LE  CONTE,  JOHN  LAWRENCE  (1825-1883)  [41],  an  Ameri- 
can naturalist,  son  of  John  Le  Conte  (1784-1860),  a  naturalist. 

LEDRU-ROLLIN,  ALEXANDRE  AUGUSTS  (1808-1874),  a 
French  politician. 

LEE  FAMILY  OF  VIRGINIA.  Richard  Lee  (1646-1714),  a 
younger  and  probably  the  youngest  son  of  a  "numerous  household" 
was  the  father  of  five  sons,  the  last  two  of  whom,  Thomas  Lee  (1690- 
1750)  [44 [,  and  Henry  Lee  (1691 — )  [45],  were  progenitors  of  the 
eminent  branches.  Thomas  had  five  sons  of  whom  the  last  three  were 
the  eminent  members,  viz.:  Richard  Henry  Lee  (1732-1794)  [42], 
a  statesman;  Francis  Lightfoot  Lee  (1734-1797)  [44],  signer  of  the 
'Declaration  of  Independence;  and  Arthur  Lee  (1740-1792)  [50],  a 
statesman.  From  Henry  Lee  (1691 — )  [45],  we  have  his  youngest 
son,  Henry  Lee  (1729 — )  [38],  his  grandson,  Col.  Henry  Lee  (1756- 
1818)  [27],  and  his  youngest  great-grandson,  Gen.  Robert  Edward 
Lee  (1807-1870)  [51]. 

LEE,  CHARLES  (1731-1782),  a  major  general  in  the  American 


APPENDIX.  311 

revolutionary  army,  youngest  son  of  Col.  John  Lee  of  the  British 
army. 

LEGARE,  HUGH  SWINTON  (1797-1843),  an  American  states- 
man. 

LEIBNITZ,  GOTTFRIED  WILHELM  (1646-1716)  [A2],  a 
German  philosopher,  second  son  by  third  wife  of  a  professor  of  phil- 
osophy. He  was  an  orphan  at  6. 

LEIDY,  JOSEPH  (1823-1892),  an  American  naturalist  and  phy- 
siologist. 

LESLIE,  CHARLES  (1650-1722)  [80],  a  British  theological 
writer,  son  of  Rev.  John  Leslie  (15701671),  a  British  prelate,  the 
oldest  bishop  in  the  world  at  the  time  of  his  death. 

LESSEPS,  FERDINAND  DE  (1805-1894)  [31],  a  French  en- 
gineer, son  of  Matthieu  de  Lesseps  (1774-1832). 

LESSING,  GOTTHOLD  EPHRAIM  (1729-1781)  [36],  a  Ger- 
man author,  son  of  Rev.  Johann  Gottfried  Lessing  (1693 — )  [47],  who 
was  son  of  Theophilus  Lessing  (1646 — ). 

LESSING,  KARL  FRIEDRICH  (1808-1880)  [115-^-3],  a  Ger- 
man painter,  great-grandson  of  Rev.  Johann  Gottfried  Lessing 

(1693-)  [47]- 

LEVERRIER,  URBAIN  JEAN  JOSEPH  (1811-1877),  a  French 
astronomer. 

LIEBIG,  JUSTUS  VON  (1803-1873),  a  German  chemist. 

• 

LINCOLN,  ABRAHAM  (1809-1865)  [31],  sixteenth  president 
of  the  United  States,  son  of  Thomas  Lincoln  (1778 — )  [44?],  who  was 
youngest  son  of  Abraham  Lincoln  (1733? — ),  who  was  third  son  of 
John  Lincoln.  The  mother  of  Lincoln,  Nancy  Hanks,  was  the  youngest 
child  of  a  considerable  family  and  her  father,  Joseph  Hanks,  was  the 
youngest  of  five  sons  of  William  Hanks  (1704 — ).  Her  mother, 
Nancy  Shipley,  was  the  youngest  child  of  Robert  Shipley. 

LINNAEUS,  CARL  VON  (1707-1778),  a  Swedish  naturalist,  son 
of  Rev.  Nils  Linnaeus  and  Christina,  the  daughter  of  a  minister. 


312  APPENDIX. 

LISZT,  FRANZ  (1811-1886),  a  Hungarian  pianist,  son  of  Adam 
Liszt,  and  an  orphan  at  16. 

LIVINGSTON  FAMILY.     See  page  184. 

LOCKE,  JOHN  (1632-1704)  [26],  an  English  philosopher, .  son 
of  John  Locke  (1606-1661)  [32],  who  was  son  of  Nicholas  Locke 
(1574 — ),  who  was  a  younger  son.  The  mother  of  Locke  was  nearly 
ten  years  older  than  her  husband. 

LONGFELLOW,  HENRY  WADSWORTH  (1807-1882)  [31], 
an  American  poet,  son  of  Stephen  Longfellow  (1776 — )  [27],  a  lawyer 
who  was  son  of  Stephen  Longfellow. 

LOPEZ,  FRANCISCO  SOLANO  (1827-1870)  [37],  president  of 
Paraguay,  son  of  Carlos  Antonio  Lopez  (1790-1862),  also  president  of 
Paraguay  and  a  shrewd  diplomatist. 

LOUIS  XIV.  (1638-1715)  [37],  called  the  Great,  king  of  France, 
son  of  Louis  XIII.  (1601-1643). 

LOWELL,  JAMES  RUSSELL  (1819-1891),  [37],  an  American 
author  and  poet,  youngest  [  ?]  son  of  Rev.  Charles  Lowell  (1782-1861) 
[39],  who  was  youngest  son  of  Judge  John  Lowell  (1743-1802),  who 
was  son  of  Rev.  John  Lowell,  the  first  minister  of  Newburyport,  Mass. 

LOWTH,  ROBERT  (1710-1787)  [49],  an  English  professor  and 
poet,  son  of  William  Lowth  (1661-1731). 

LOYOLA,  SAINT  IGNATIUS  DE  (1491-1556)  [A],  founder 
of  the  society  of  Jesus  (Jesuits).  He  was  the  youngest  of  eleven, chil- 
dren. 

LUBBOCK,  SIR  JOHN  (1834—)  [31],  an  English  physicist,  son 
of  Sir  John  Lubbock  (1803-1865),  an  astronomer. 

LULLY,  RAYMOND  (1235-1315),  a  Spanish  philosopher. 

LUTHER,  MARTIN  (1483-1546),  the  leader  of  the  German 
reformation,  son  of  Jean  Luther  who  was  originally  a  poor  peasant 
but  who  appears  to  have  acquired  property  before  his  son's  birth. 

LYELL,  SIR  CHARLES  (1797-1875)  [30],  a  British  geologist, 
son  of  Charles  Lyell  (1767 — ),  a  botanist. 

MACAULEY,  THOMAS  BABINGTON   (1800-1859)    [32],  an 


APPENDIX.  313 

English  historian,  son  of  Zachary  Macauley  (1768 — )   [A],  who  was 
son  of  John  Macauley  who  was  a  minister  in  1746. 

MACHIAVELLI,  NICCOLO  (1469-1572)  [41],  an  Italian  states- 
man, son  of  Bernardo  Machiavelli  (1428 — ),  a  lawyer  who  was  son 
of  Niccolo  Machiavelli.  His  mother  was  a  poetess. 

MAC  MAHON,  MARIE  EDME  PATRICE  MAURICE  DE 
(1808-1893)  [A?],  president  of  France,  eighth  and  youngest  child  of 
Charles  Laure  de  Mac  Mahon,  a  personal  friend  of  Charles  X.  (1757- 
1836). 

MAGENDIE,  FRANCOIS  (1783-1855),  a  French  physiologist. 

MALTHUS,  THOMAS  ROBERT  (1766-1834)  [36],  an  English 
political  economist,  son  of  Daniel  Malthus  (1730 — ). 

MANN,  HORACE  (1796-1859)  [40],  an  American  educationist, 
son  of  Thomas  Mann  (1756 — )  [40],  who  was  son  of  Nathan  Mann 
(1716-)  [34]- 

MANUTIUS,  PAULUS  (1511-1574)  [62],  an  Italian  author  and 
publisher,  youngest  son  of  Aldus  Manutius  (1449-1515),  also  a  painter 
and  the  founder  of  the  family. 

MARAT,  JEAN  PAUL  (1744-1793),  a  French  revolutionist,  son 
of  Jean  Paul  Marat,  a  doctor  of  some  learning. 

MARCELLUS,  MARCUS  CLAUDIUS  (B.  C.  268-208),  a  Ro- 
man consul,  the  most  prominent  member  of  the  most  illustrious  ple- 
beian family  of  the  Claudia  Gens.  Ancestry:  for  three  generations, 
[123-^-3]  ;  for  seven  generations  [281-^-7]. 

MARIE  ANTOINETTE  (i755-i?93)  [47],  Queen  of  France, 
youngest  daughter  of  Francis  I.  of  Austria  (1708-1765)  and  Maria 
Theresa  (1717-1780). 

MARIETTE,  AUGUSTS  EDOUARD  (1821-1881),  a  French 
archaeologist. 

MARION,  FRANCIS  (1732-1795),  an  American  revolutionary 
officer  without  advantages  of  education.  He  was  "one  of  the  purest 
men,  truest  patriots,  and  most  adroit  generals  that  American  history 
can  boast."  He  was  the  youngest  of  seven  children. 


APPENDIX. 

MARIOTTE,  EDME  (—1684),  a  French  physicist,  author  of 
Mariotte's  laws  relating  to  gases. 

MARIUS,  CAIUS  (B.  C.  157-86),  a  Roman  soldier. 

MARLBOROUGH,  duke  of,  JOHN  CHURCHILL  (1650-1722) 
[30?],  a  British  general,  son  of  Sir  Winston  Churchill  (i62O?-i688), 
who  was  son  of  John  Churchill,  a  lawyer. 

MARSHALL,  JOHN  (1755-1835)  [25],  an  American  jurist,  eld- 
est son  of  Col.  Thomas  Marshall.  See  page  107. 

MARTEL,  CHARLES  (690-741)  [40],  duke  of  Austrasia,  natu- 
ral son  of  Pepin  of  Heristal  (650-714). 

MARTINEAU,  HARRIET  (1802-1876),  an  English  authoress, 
sixth  of  eight  children  of  Thomas  Martineau. 

MARTINEAU,  JAMES  (1805—),  an  English  Unitarian  clergy- 
man, youngest  brother  of  Harriet. 

MATHER,  INCREASE  (1639-1723)  [43],  an  American  clergy- 
man, son  of  Rev.  Richard  Mather  (1596-1669).  Cotton  Mather  (1663- 
1728)  [24],  was  son  of  Increase  Mather. 

MAZZINI,  GIUSEPPE  (1805-1872),  an  Italian  revolutionist. 

MEHEMET  ALI  (1769-1849),  viceroy  of  Egypt,  an  orphan  at 
an  early  age. 

MELANCHTHON,  PHILIP  (1497-1560)  [35?],  the  second  lead- 
er of  the  Reformation,  son  of  George  Schwartzerd  (1462?). 

MENDELSSOHN,  MOSES  (1729-1786),  a  German  philosopher 
of  Jewish  descent,  son  of  a  teacher. 

MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY,  FELIX  (1809-1847)  [33], 
a  German  composer,  son  of  Abraham  Mendelssohn  (1776--)  [47], 
who  was  son  of  Moses  Mendelssohn  (1729-1786). 

MENDOZA,  DIEGO  HURTADO  DE  (1503-1575),  a  Spanish 
scholar  and  author,  the  most  eminent  member  of  the  Mendoza  family. 
He  was  a  younger,  or  the  youngest,  son  of  the  count  of  Tendilla,  who 
was  nephew  (or  grand-nephew)  of  Inigo  Lopez  de  Mendoza  (1398- 
1458). 


APPENDIX.  315 

MENSHIKOFF,  ALEXANDER  DANILOVITCH  (1672-1729), 
a  Russian  prince  and  statesman,  son  of  poor  parents. 

MERIAN,  MARIA  SIBYLLA  (1647-1717)  [54],  a  Swiss  natu- 
ralist, daughter  of  Matthaus  Merian  (1593-1651),  an  engraver. 

METTERNICH,  CLEMENS  WENZEL  NEPOMUK  LO- 
TH AR  (1773-1859),  an  Austrian  statesman. 

MEYERBEER,  GIACOMO  (1794-1864),  a  German  composer. 
His  brother,  Wilhelm  Beer  (1797-1850),  was  an  astronomer,  and  his 
brother,  Michael  Beer  (1800-1833),  was  a  dramatist. 

MILL,  JOHN  STUART  (1806-1873)  [33],  an  English  philoso- 
pher, son  of  James  Mill  (1773-1836),  also  a  philosopher. 

MILLAIS,  JOHN  EVERETT  (1829—),  an  English  painter. 

MILLER,  HUGH  (1802-1856),  a  Scottish  geologist,  son  of  Hugh 
Miller  by  his  second  wife. 

MILNE-EDWARDS,  HENRI  (1800-1885)  [A],  a  French  natu- 
ralist of  English  descent.  His  brother,  William  Frederick  Edwards 
(1777-1842),  was  a  physician. 

MILTON,  JOHN  (1608-1674)  [45],  an  English  poet,  son  of  John 
Milton  (1563-1647),  who  was  a  musician. 

MIRABEAU,  GABRIEL  HONORE  RIQUETTI  (1749-1791) 
[34],  a  French  author  and  statesman,  son  of  Victor  Riquetti  Mirabeau 
(1715-1789),  an  author  who  was  son  of  Jean  Antoine  Mirabeau,  who 
especially  distinguished  himself  in  the  battle  of  Cassano  in  1705. 

MOHAMMED  (570-632)  [25],  founder  of  the  Mussulman  re- 
ligion, son  of  Abdallah  (545-57°)  [4^+],  a  merchant  who  was  tenth 
son  of  Abd  al  Muttalib,  who  was  born  before  499,  and  who  was  son 
of  Hashim,  who  was  a  younger  son  of  Abd  Menaf,  who  was  a  younger 
son  of  Cossai.  Hashim  was  "advanced  in  years"  when  he  married 
Salma,  a  widow  with  two  sons.  His  mother  was  Amina,  daughter  of 
Wahb,  chief  of  the  tribe  of  Benu  Zahra. 

MOLIERE,  assumed  name  of  Jean  Baptiste  Poquelin  (1622-1673), 
a  French  dramatist,  son  of  Jean  Poquelin. 

MOLTKE,  HELMUTH  KARL  BERNHARD  VON  (1800-1891) 


APPENDIX. 

[32],  a  German  general,  son  of  Philipp  Victor  Moltke  (1768-1845) 
[38],  a  Danish  general  who  was  son  of  Friedrich  Casimir-Siegfried 
Moltke  (1730-1785). 

MONTAIGNE,  MICHEL  (i533-i592)>  a  French  author,  third  of 
nine  children. 

MONTALEMBERT,  CHARLES  FORBES  RENE  DE  (1810- 
1870)  [96-^-2],  a  French  statesman,  grandson  of  Marc  Rene  de  Monta- 
lembert  (1714-1800),  a  military  engineer. 

MONTESQUIEU,  CHARLES  DE  SECONDAT  (1689-1755),  a 
French  philosopher. 

MONTMORENCY,  HENRY  II.  (1595-1632)  [103-5-2],  a  mar- 
shal of  France,  appointed  admiral  at  16,  marshal  at  34  and  executed  at 
37.  He  was  grandson  of  Anne  Montmorency  (1492-1567). 

MOORE,  SIR  JOHN  (1761-1809)  [32],  a  British  general,  son  of 
Dr.  John  Moore  (1729-1802). 

MOORE,  THOMAS  (1779-1852),  an  Irish  poet,  son  of  John 
Moore,  a  grocer. 

MORE,  SIR  THOMAS  (1480-1535),  an  English  statesman,  son 
of  Sir  John  More,  a  justice  of  the  king's  bench. 

MORSE,  SAMUEL  FINLEY  BREESE  (1791-1872)  [30],  an 
American  artist  and  inventor,  eldest  son  of  Jedediah  Morse  (1761- 
1826)  [35],  a  geographer  who  was  son  of  Deacon  Jedediah  Morse 
(1726-). 

MORTON,  WILLIAM  THOMAS  GREEN  (1819-1868)  [35?], 
an  American  dentist,  the  first  to  use  ether.  He  was  son  of  James  Mor- 
ton (1784? — )  [25?],  who  was  son  of  Thomas  Morton  (1759 — ). 

MOSES  (B.  C.  1571-1451)  [185-^-3],  Jewish  lawgiver,  son  of  Am- 
ram,  who  was  son  of  Kohath,  who  was  son  of  Levi  (B.  C.  1756-1619) 
[81],  who  was  son  of  Jacob  (B.  C.  1837-1689).  For  additional  ances- 
try, see  Joseph. 

MOZART,  WOLFGANG  (1756-1791)  [37],  a  German  composer, 
son  of  Johann  Georg  Leopold  Mozart  (1719-1787),  a  musician. 


APPENDIX.  317 

MULLER,  FRIEDRICH  MAX  (1823-1900)  [29],  an  English 
philologist,  son  of  the  German  poet  Wilhelm  Miiller  (1794-1827). 

MULLER,  JOHANNES  (1801-1858),  a  German  physiologist,  son 
of  a  poor  shoemaker. 

MULLER,  OTTO  FREDERIK  (1730-1784),  a  Danish  naturalist. 

MURAT,  JOACHIM  (1771-1815),  a  French  soldier  and  king  of 
Naples,  son  of  an  innkeeper. 

MURILLO,  BARTOLOME  ESTEBAN  (1617-1682),  a  Span- 
ish painter,  son  of  Caspar  Esteban  Murillo,  and  a  full  orphan  at  the 
age  of  10. 

MURRAY,  WILLIAM,  earl  of  Mansfield  (1705-1793),  a  Brit- 
ish jurist,  fourth  son  of  David  Murray. 

NAGELI,  KARL  WILHELM  (1817-1891),  a  Swiss  botanist. 

NAPIER,  JOHN  (1550-1617)  [16],  inventor  of  logarithms,  son  of 
Sir  Archibald  Napier  (1534-1608)  [21],  son  of  Alexander  Napier 
(1513-1547).  Napier's  mother  was  Janet  Bothwell,  sister  of  Adam 
Bothwell  (1527-1593),  who  was  bishop  of  Orkney  and  who  was  second 
son  of  Francis  Bothwell.  The  mother  of  Sir  Archibald  Napier  (1534) 
was  Annabella  Campbell,  youngest  daughter  of  Sir  Duncan  Campbell. 

NASMYTH,  JAMES  (1808-1890)  [50],  an  English  inventor,  son 
of  Alexander  Nasmyth  (1758-1840),  a  portrait  and  landscape  painter. 

NAUDIN,  CHARLES  VICTOR  (1815—),  a  French  botanist. 

NAUMANN,  KARL  FRIEDRICH  (1797-1874)  [56],  a  German 
mineralogist,  son  of  Johann  Gottlieb  Naumann  (1741-1801),  a  German 
composer. 

NAUMANN,  MORITZ  ERNST  ADOLF  (1798-1871)  [57],  a 
German  physician,  brother  of  Karl. 

NAUMANN,  EMIL  (1828—)  [30],  a  German  composer,  son  of 
Moritz  E,  A.  Naumann  (1798-1871)  [57]. 

NEANDER,  JOHANN  AUGUST  WILHELM  (1789-1850),  a 
German  church  historian  whose  original  name  was  David  Mendel."  He 
was  the  youngest  child  of  a  Jewish  peddler. 


APPENDIX. 

NECKER,  JACQUES  (1732-1804),  a  French  statesman  and  min- 
ister of  finance. 

NEES  VON  ESENBECK,  CHRISTIAN  GOTTFRIED  DAN- 
IEL (1776-1858),  a  German  botanist. 

NELSON,  HORATIO  (1758-1805)  [36],  a  British  admiral,  third 
son  of  Edmund  Nelson  (1722-1802)  [29],  a  rector  who  was  son  of 
Edmund  Nelson  ( 1693-1747) ,  a  rector. 

NESSELRODE,  KARL  ROBERT  VON  (1780-1862),  a  Russian 
statesman  of  German  origin. 

NEWMAN,  JOHN  HENRY  (1801-1890),  an  English  cardinal 
and  author,  son  of  John  Newman. 

NEWMAN,  FRANCIS  WILLIAM  (1805—),  an  English  author, 
brother  of  the  preceding. 

NEWTON,  SIR  ISAAC  (1642-1727)  [36],  an  English  philoso- 
pher, posthumous  son  of  Isaac  Newton  (1606-1642),  who  was  son  of 
Robert  Newton. 

NEY,  MICHEL  (1769-1815),  a  French  marshal. 

NIEBUHR,  BARTHOLD  GEORG  (1776-1831)  [43],  a  German 
historian,  son  of  Karstens  Niebuhr  (1733-1815),  a  German  traveler 
and  author. 

NIEPCE  DE  SAINT- VICTOR,  CLAUDE  MARIE  FRANCOIS 
(1805-1870)  [40+x],  a  French  chemist,  nephew  of  Joseph  Nicephore 
Niepce  (1765-1833),  also  a  chemist  and  one  of  the  inventors  of  pho- 
tography. 

NORTON,  CHARLES  ELIOT  (1827—)  [41],  an  American  au- 
thor, son  of  Andrews  Norton  (1786-1853),  an  author. 

O'CONNELL,  DANIEL  (1775-1847),  an  Irish  statesman,  eldest 
son  of  Morgan  O'Connell. 

OERSTED,  HANS!  CHRISTIAN  (1777-1851),  a  Danish  natural 
philosopher,  son  of  a  druggist. 

OERSTED,  ANDERS  SANDOE  (1778-1860),  a  Danish  states- 
man and  writer  on  philosophy,  brother  of  Hans. 


APPENDIX. 


319 


OFFENBACH,  JACQUES  (1819-1880),  a  French  composer,  son 
of  German-Jewish  parents. 

OHM,  GEORG  SIMON  (1787-1854),  a  German  physicist,  au- 
thor of  "Ohm's  law,"  son  of  a  locksmith. 

OHM,  MARTIN  (1792-1872),  a  German  mathematician,  brother 
of  the  preceding. 

OKEN,  LORENZ  (1779-1851),  a  German  naturalist. 

OWEN,  RICHARD  (1804-1892)  [50],  a  British  naturalist,  son  of 
Richard  Owen  (1754-1809)  [A?],  a  merchant  who  was  son  of  Wil- 
liam Owen,  who  was  high  sheriff  in  1741.  Owen's  mother,  a  widow, 
was  Catherine  Perrin  (1760-1838)  [40],  who  was  daughter  of  Robert 
Perrin  (1720-1757),  an  organist. 

OWEN,  ROBERT  DALE  (1801-1877)  [30],  an  American  author, 
son  of  Robert  Owen  (1771-1858),  an  English  social  reformer  who  was 
son  of  poor  parents. 

OWEN,  DAVID  DALE  (1807-1860)  [36],  an  American  geologist, 
brother  of  the  preceding. 

PAGANINI,  NICOLO  (1784-1840),  an  Italian  musician. 

PAINE,  ROBERT  TREAT,  JR.,  (1773-1811)  [42],  an  American 
author,  son  of  Robert  Treat  Paine  (1731-1814),  an  American  states- 
man. 

PAINE,  THOMAS  (1737-1809),  an  American  political  writer,  son 
of  a  Quaker  shoemaker. 

PALISSY,  BERNARD  (1510-1590),  a  French  potter. 

PALMERSTON  (Henry  John  Temple),  (1784-1865)  [45],  a  Brit- 
ish statesman,  son  of  Henry  Temple  (1739-1802)  [66-7-2],  who  was 
grandson  of  Henry  Temple  (1673-1757). 

PAOLI,  PASQUALE  (1726-1807),  a  Corsican  patriot.  His 
brother  Clemente  was  9  years  older. 

PAPIN,  DENIS  (1647-1712),  a  French  physicist,  a  pioneer  in- 
ventor of  the  steam  engine  and  steamboat. 

PARE,  AMBROISE  (1517-1590),  a  French  surgeon. 


320 


APPENDIX. 


PARKER,  THEODORE  (1810-1860)  [49],  an  American  theo- 
logian, son  of  John  Parker  (1761 — )  [32],  who  was  son  of  John  Par- 
ker (1729—)- 

PARSONS,  THEOPHILUS  (1797-1882)  [47],  an  American  jur- 
ist, son  of  Theophilus  Parsons  (1750-1813),  a  jurist. 

PASCAL,  BLAISE  (1623-1662),  a  French  author,  son  of  Etienne 
Pascal,  president  of  the  court  of  aids. 

PASTEUR,  LOUIS  (1822—),  a  French  chemist  and  biologist. 
His  father  was  decorated  by  Napoleon  during  First  Empire. 

PATTI,  ADELINA  MARIA  CLORINDA  (1843—),  an  operatic 
singer,  younger  (or  youngest)  daughter  by  second  marriage.  Both 
parents  were  professional  singers. 

PEABODY,  GEORGE  (1795-1869)  [33],  an  American  merchant 
and  philanthropist,  son  of  Thomas  Peabody  (1762 — )  [36],  who  was 
son  of  David  Peabody  (1724 — )  [46],  who  was  son  of  Ensign  David 
Peabody  (1678—)  [36]. 

PEEL,  SIR  ROBERT  (1788-1850)  [38],  an  English  statesman, 
eldest  son  of  Sir  Robert  Peel  (1750-1830). 

PEIRCE,  BENJAMIN  (1809-1880),  an  American  mathematician. 

PEPYS,  SAMUEL  (1633-1703)  [32],  an  English  author,  son  of 
John  Pepys  (1601 — ). 

PERICLES,  see  page  128. 

PERKINS,  JACOB  (1766-1849),  an  American  inventor. 

PERRY,  OLIVER  HAZARD  (1785-1819)  [24],  an  American 
naval  officer,  son  of  Christopher  Raymond  Perry  (1761-1818)  [29], 
a  naval  officer,  son  of  Freeman  Perry  (1732 — ). 

PESTALOZZI,  JOHANN  HEINRICH  (1746-1827),  a  Swiss 
teacher,  orphan  at  the  age  of  6. 

PETER  THE  GREAT  (1672-1725)  [43],  emperor  of  Russia,  son 
of  Alexis  (1629-1676). 

PETRARCH   (1304-1374),  an  Italian  poet,  son  of  a  notary  of 


APPENDIX.  321 

Florence  who  was  exiled  prior  to  his  son's  birth.    He  was  an  orphan 
at  about  20. 

PHIDIAS  (B.  C.  489-432),  a  Greek  sculptor. 

PHILIP  OF  MACEDON,  see  page  127. 

PINEL,  PHILIPPE  (1745-1826),  a  French  physician. 

PISANO,  ANDREA  (1270-1345)  [70],  an  Italian  sculptor  and 
architect,  son  of  Nicola  Pisano  (1200-1278),  an  Italian  sculptor. 

PISANO,  GIOVANNI  (1240-1320)  [40],  an  Italian  architect, 
brother  of  the  preceding. 

PITT,  WILLIAM  (1759-1806)  [51],  an  English  statesman,  son 
of  William  Pitt  (1708-1778),  who  was  second  son  of  Robert  Pitt,  who 
was  son  of  Gov.  Thomas  Pitt  (1653-1726),  who  was  youngest  son  of 
John  Pitt,  the  rector  of  Brandford. 

PLATO  (B.  C.  429-348),  a  Greek  philosopher. 
PLINEY  THE  ELDER  (23-79),  a  Roman  author. 

PLINEY  THE  YOUNGER  (62-116),  a  Roman  author,  nephew  of 
the  Elder. 

POCAHONTAS  (1595-1617)  [45],  daughter  of  the  Indian  chief 
Powhattan  (1550-1618). 

POE,  EDGAR  ALLEN  (1809-1849)  [31],  an  American  poet, 
son  of  David  Poe  (1778?)  [36],  who  was  son  of  Gen.  David  Poe 
(1742? — ),  a  lawyer  and  officer  in  the  revolutionary  war. 

POMPEY  THE  GREAT  (B.  C.  106-48),  a  Roman  general.  His 
father  was  a  younger  son  and  was  consul  B.  C.  89. 

POPE,  ALEXANDER  (1688-1744)  [47],  an  English  poet,  son  of 
Alexander  Pope  (1641-1717),  a  merchant  who  is  said  to  have  been 
the  posthumous  son  of  Alexander  Pope,  rector  of  Thruxton.  Pope's 
mother  was  Edith  Turner  (1642 — )  [45],  daughter  of  William  Tur- 
ner (1597—). 

POPHAM,  SIR  HOME  RIGGS  (1762-1820)  [A3],  a  British  rear 
admiral,  2ist  child  of  Stephen  Popham. 

PORSON,  RICHARD  (1759-1808),  an  English  scholar  and  critic, 
eldest  of  four  children  of  Huggin  Person. 


322 


APPENDIX. 


PORTER,  DAVID  DIXON  (1813-1891)  [33],  an  American  ad- 
miral., son  of  Commodore  David  Porter  (1780-1843). 

PORTER,  NOAH  (1811-1892),  an  American  scholar. 
POUSSIN,  NICOLAS  (1593-1665),  a  French  painter. 

POWERS,  HIRAM  (1805-1873)  [A  or  B],  an  American  sculp- 
tor, the  eighth  of  nine  children.  He  was  an  orphan  at  12. 

PRESCOTT,  WILLIAM  HICKLING  (1796-1859)  [34],  an 
American  historian,  son  of  William  Prescott  (1762-1844)  [36],  a  law- 
yer who  was  son  of  William  Prescott  (1726-1795)  a  revolutionary  of- 
ficer. 

PRIESTLEY,  JOSEPH  (1733-1804)  [33],  an  English  philoso- 
pher; eldest  of  six  children  of  Jonas  Priestley  (1700-1779)  [39],  who 
was  son  of  Joseph  Priestley  (1661-1745). 

PROCTOR,  RICHARD  ANTHONY  (1837-1888),  an  English 
astronomer,  fourth  and  youngest  son  of  William  Proctor,  a  solicitor. 

PROUDHON,  PIERRE  JOSEPH  (1809-1865),  a  French  politi- 
cal writer  of  humble  origin. 

PTOLEMY  II.,  surnamed  PHILADELPHUS  (B.  C.  309-247) 
[58],  king  of  Egypt,  youngest  son  of  Ptolemy  Soter  (B.  C.  367-283). 

PUFENDORF,  SAMUEL  (1632-1694),  a  German  jurist,  son  of 
a  school  teacher. 

PUGIN,  AUGUSTIN  WELBY  NORTHMORE  (1812-1852) 
[43],  an  English  designer  and  architect,  son  of  Augustus  Pugin  (1769- 
1832),  an  architectural  draughtsman  of  French  birth.. 

PUTNAM,  ISRAEL  (1718-1790)  [A],  an  American  revolutionary 
officer,  the  eleventh  of  twelve  children. 

PYTHAGORAS  (B.  C.  580-500),  a  Greek  philosopher. 

QUATREFAGES  DE  BREAU,  JEAN  LOUIS  ARMAND  DE 
(1810-1892),  a  French  naturalist. 

RABELAIS,  FRANCOIS  (1490-1553),  a  French  author. 

RACINE,  JEAN  (1639-1699)  [24],  a  French  dramatist,  son  of 
Jean  Racine  (1615-1639),  a  lawyer. 


APPENDIX.  323 

RALEIGH,  SIR  WALTER  (1552-1618)  [56],  an  English  states- 
man and  navigator,  son  of  Walter  Raleigh  (1496-1581). 

RANKINE,  WILLIAM  JOHN  MACQUORN  (1820-1872),  an 
English  physicist  and  engineer,  son  of  David  Rankine,  an  engineer. 

RAPHAEL  (1483-1520)  [32?],  an  Italian  painter,  son  of  Gio- 
vanni Santi,  a  painter  of  repute  who  belonged  to  a  family  of  artists. 
He  was  an  orphan  at  n,  his  mother  dying  three  years  earlier.  For 
many  years  before  Raphael's  birth,  Urbino,  his  birthplace,  was  one  of 
the  chief  centers  of  artistic  activity. 

READE,  CHARLES  (1814-1884),  an  English  novelist. 

REAUMUR,  RENE  ANTOINE  FERCHAULT  DE  (1683- 
I757)'  a  French  natural  philosopher  and  inventor. 

REDFIELD,  JAMES  WAKEMAN  (1816-1893)  [47],  an  Ameri- 
can physiognomist,  youngest  son  of  Theophilus  Redfield  (1769-1853) 
[34],  who  was  son  of  Capt.  James  Redfield  (1735-1788)  [53],  who  was 
son  of  Theophilus  Redfield  (1682-1759). 

REGNAULT,  HENRI  VICTOR  (1810-1878),  a  French  physicist 
His  son  Henri  [33],  was  a  painter. 

REICHENBACH,  KARL  (1788-1869),  a  German  naturalist. 

REMBRANDT  VAN  RYN,  PAUL  HARMENS  .(1607-1669) 
[40],  a  Dutch  painter,  son  of  a  miller.  His  mother  was  35. 

RENAN,  JOSEPH  ERNEST  (1823-1892),  a  French  orientalist 
and  critic.  Had  a  brother  14  years  older. 

REYNOLDS,  SIR  JOSHUA  (1723-1792)  [42],  an  English  paint- 
er, son  of  Rev.  Samuel  Reynolds  (1681-1746),  who  was  son  of  Rev. 
John  Reynolds. 

RICHELIEU,  ARMAND  JEAN  DUPLESSIS  (1585-1642)  [37], 
a  French  cardinal  and  statesman,  younger  son  of  Francois  Richelieu 
(1548-1590). 

RICHTER,  JOHANN  FRIEDRICH  (Jean  Paul)  (1763-1825), 
a  German  author. 

RIENZI,  NICOLA  GABRINI  (1312-1354),  "the  last  of  the 
Roman  tribunes." 


324  APPENDIX. 

RIVES,  AMELIE  (Mrs.  Chandler)  (1864—)  [71],  an  American 
authoress,  daughter  of  William  Cabell  Rives  (1793-1868),  an  Ameri- 
can statesman. 

ROBESPIERRE,  MAXIMILIEN  MARIE  ISIDORE  DE 
(1758-1794),  a  French  revolutionist. 

ROMANES,  GEORGE  JOHN  (1848-1894),  an  English  biologist, 
third  son  of  Rev.  George  Romanes  and  a  daughter  of  Rev.  Robert 
Smith. 

ROMILLY,  JOHN  (1802-1874)  [45],  an  English  jurist  and 
statesman,  son  of  Sir  Samuel  Romilly  (1757-1818)  [(72+x)-f-2],  a 
lawyer  and  statesman  who  was  youngest  son  of  Peter  Romilly,  who 
was  a  younger  son  of  Etienne  Romilly,  who  fled  from  Montpelier  on 
the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  Oct.  22,  1685. 

ROSSINI,  GIOACCHINO  (1792-1868),  an  Italian  composer. 

ROUSSEAU,  JEAN  JACQUES  (1712-1778),  a  French  author, 
son  of  Isaac  Rousseau,  a  watchmaker. 

RUBENS,  PETER  PAUL  (1577-1640),  a  Flemish  painter,  son 
of  John  Rubens,  who  was  a  councillor  and  alderman  in  his  native  town 
1 6  years  before  his  son's  birth  and  who  removed  to  Cologne  with  his 
wife  and  four  children  9  years  before  his  son  was  born.  Rubens  was 
an  orphan  at  10. 

RUBINSTEIN,  ANTON  (1830-1894),  a  Russian  pianist. 

RUMFORD,  count  (Benjamin  Thompson)  (1753-1814),  an  Amer- 
ican natural  philosopher,  son  of  Benjamin  Thompson  and  an  orphan 
at  the  age  of  i. 

RUSH,  BENJAMIN  (1745-1813),  an  American  physician,  orphan 
at  6.  His  son  Richard  Rush  (1780-1859)  [35]  was  a  statesman. 

RUSKIN,  JOHN  (1819-1899)  [34],  an  English  author,  son  of 
J.  J.  Ruskin  (1785 — )  [25],  a  London  merchant  who  was  son  of  John 
Ruskin  (1760 — ). 

SAINTE-BEUVE,  CHARLES  AUGUSTIN  (1804-1869),  a 
French  author. 

SAUSSURE,  HORACE  BENEDICT  DE   (1740-1799)    [31],  a 


APPENDIX.  325 

Swiss  naturalist,  son  of  Nicholas  de  Saussure  (1709-1790),  a  literary 
agriculturist.    His  mother  was  a  sister  of  Charles  Bonnet  (1720-1793). 

SAVONAROLA,  GIROLAMO  (1452-1498)  [68-f-2],  an  Italian 
reformer,  son  of  Nicolo  Savonarola,  who  was  son  of  Michele  Savona- 
rola (1384—)- 

SAKE,  MAURICE  (1696-1750)  [26],  a  marshal  of  France,  nat- 
ural son  of  Augustus  of  Saxony  (1670-1733). 

SCALIGER,  JOSEPH  JUSTUS  (1540-1609)  [56],  an  Italian 
philosopher  and  chronologist,  tenth  son  of  Julius  Caesar  Scaliger 
(1484-1558),  a  philologist. 

SCHAFF,  PHILIP  (1819—),  a  Swiss-American  scholar. 

SCHELLING,  FRIEDRICH  WILHELM  JOSEPH  VON  (1775- 
1854),  a  German  philosopher,  son  of  a  prelate  at  Maulbronn. 

SCHILLER,  JOHANN  CHRISTOPH  FRIEDRICH  VON 
(1759-1805)  [36],  a  German  poet,  son  of  Johann  Kaspar  Schiller 
(1723 — )  [43],  who  was  son  of  Johann  Schiller  (1680-1733)  [31], 
who  was  son  of  Johann  Kaspar  Schiller  (1649-1687).  Schiller's 
mother  was  Elizabeth  Dorothea  Kodweiss  (1733 — )  [35],  daughter 
of  Georg  Friedrich  Kodweiss  (1698-1771). 

SCHLEGEL,  AUGUST  WILHELM  VON  (1767-1845),  a  Ger- 
man scholar,  son  of  the  poet  and  clergyman  Johann  Adolf  Schlegel. 

SCHLEGEL,  FRIEDRICH  KARL  WILHELM  VON  (1772- 
1829),  a  German  philosopher  and  author,  brother  of  the  preceding. 

SCHLEIERMACHER,  FRIEDRICH  DANIEL  ERNST  (1768- 
1834),  a  German  theologian,  son  of  a  Reformed  minister. 

SCHLIEMANN,  HEINRICH  (1822—),  a  German  archaeologist, 
son  of  poor  parents. 

SCHOOLCRAFT,  HENRY  ROWE  (1793-1864),  an  American 
author. 

SCHOPENHAUER,  ARTHUR  (1788-1860)  [42],  a  German  pes- 
simistic philosopher,  youngest  child  of  Heinrich  Floris  Schopenhauer 


326  APPENDIX. 

SCHULTZ-SCHULTZENSTEIN,  KARL  HEINRICH  (1798- 
1871),  a  German  physiologist. 

SCHUMACHER,  HEINRICH  CHRISTIAN  (1780-1850),  a 
Danish  astronomer. 

SCHUMANN,  ROBERT  (1810-1856),  a  German  composer,  son 
of  a  publisher. 

SCHURZ,  CARL  (1829—),  an  American  statesman. 

SCIPIO  AFRICANUS  MAJOR  (B.  C.  234-183),  a  Roman  gen- 
eral. His  father  was  consul,  B.  C.  218;  his  grandfather,  B.  C.  259; 
his  great-grandfather,  B.  C.  298;  and  his  great-great-grandfather,  B. 
C.  328. 

SCOTT,  SIR  WALTER  (1771-1832)  [42],  a  Scottish  author, 
younger  son  of  Walter  Scott  (1729 — ).  His  mother  was  daughter  of 
Prof.  John  Rutherford. 

SCOTT,  WINFIELD  (1786-1866),  an  American  general. 

SECCHI,  PIETRO  ANGELO  (1818-1878),  an  Italian  astrono- 
mer. 

SENECA,  LUCIUS  ANNAEUS  (—65)  [A2],  a  Roman  stoic 
philosopher  born  a  few  years  before  the  Christian  era,  son  of  Marcus 
Annaeus  Seneca  (B.  C.  6i-A.  D.  35). 

SEWARD,  WILLIAM  HENRY  (1801-1872),  an  American  states- 
man, son  of  Dr.  Samuel  Seward. 

SEYMOUR,  HORATIO  (1810-1886),  an  American  statesman, 
son  of  Henry  Seymour,  who  was  son  of  Major  Moses  Seymour. 

SHAFTSBURY,  earl  of,  ANTHONY  ASHLEY  COOPER 
(1621-1683)  [(70+x)-7-2],  an  English  statesman,  son  of  Sir  John 
Cooper  and  Anne,  daughter  of  Sir  Anthony  Ashley  (1551-1627).  He 
was  an  orphan  at  10. 

SHAKESPEARE,  WILLIAM,  see  page  134. 

SHELLEY,  PERCY  BYSSHE  (1792-1822),  an  English  poet,  son 
of  Sir  Timothy  Shelley. 


APPENDIX.  327 

SHERIDAN,  PHILIP  HENRY  (1831-1888),  an  American  gen- 
eral, third  child  of  John  Sheridan. 

SHERIDAN,  RICHARD  BRINSLEY  (1751-1816)  [30],  an 
English  dramatist  and  politician,  son  of  Thomas  Sheridan  (1721- 
1788)  [37],  an  elocutionist  who  was  son  of  Thomas  Sheridan  (1684- 
1738),  an  Irish  clergyman,  who  was  son  of  James  Sheridan,  who  was 
youngest  son  of  Rev.  Dennis  Sheridan.  The  mother  of  Richard  was  a 
novelist. 

SHERMAN,  JOHN  (1823-1899)  [35],  an  American  statesman, 
son  of  Charles  Robert  Sherman  (1788-1829)  [30],  who  was  son  of 
Taylor  Sherman  (1758-1815)  [37],  who  was  son  of  Daniel  Sherman 
(1721-1799)  [34]. 

SHERMAN,  WILLIAM  TECUMSEH  (1820-1891)  [32],  an 
American  general,  brother  of  the  preceding. 

SIDNEY,  HENRY  (1641-1704)  [46],  earl  of  Romney,  an  English 
statesman,  youngest  son  of  Robert  Sidney  (1595-1677)  [32],  son  of 
Robert  Sidney  (1563-1626)  [34],  son  of  Sir  Henry  Sidney  (1529- 
1586)  [47],  son  of  Sir  William  Sidney  (1482-1554). 

SIDNEY,  SIR  PHILIP  (1554-1586)  [25],  an  English  author,  son 
of  Sir  Henry  Sidney  (1529-1586)  [47].  The  mother  of  Sir  Philip  was 
daughter  of  John  Dudley  (1502  —  )  [40],  who  was  son  of  Edmund 
Dudley  (1462—). 

SIEMENS  BROTHERS,  German  inventors  and  engineers,  Ernst 
Werner  (1816—  )  ;  Karl  Wilhelm  (1823—)  ;  and  Friedrich  (1826—). 

SILLIMAN,  BENJAMIN  (1779-1864)  [A],  an  American  physi- 
cist, son  of  Gold  Selleck  Silliman,  who  graduated  at  Yale  college  in 
1752.  Benjamin  Silliman,  Jr.  (1816  —  )  [35],  also  a  physicist. 

SMITH,  ADAM  (1723-1790),  a  Scottish  philosopher,  posthumous 
son  of  Adam  Smith,  who  was  controller  of  customs  at  Kirkcaldy  in 


SMITH,  SIDNEY  (1771-1845)    [32],  an  English  author,  son  of 
Robert  Smith  (1739-1827),  who  was  an  orphan  at  an  early  age. 

SMOLLETT,  TOBIAS  GEORGE  (1721-1771)  [73-^2],  a  British 


328  APPENDIX. 

author,  son  of  Archibald  Smollett,  who  was  youngest  son  of  Sir  James 
Smollett  (1648-1731). 

SNELL,  WILLEBRORD  (1591-1626)  [44],  a  Dutch  mathemati- 
cian, the  first  to  calculate  the  size  of  the  earth,  and  the  discoverer  of 
refraction  of  light.  He  was  son  of  Rudolph  Snell  (1547-1613),  a 
mathematician  and  philologist. 

SOCRATES  (B.  C.  470-399),  a  Greek  philosopher. 

SOLOMON  (B.  C.  1033-975)  [52],  King  of  Israel,  son  of  David 
(B.  C.  1085-1015)  [A2],  who  was  youngest  son  of  Jesse. 

'  SOPHOCLES  (B.  C.  496-406),  a  Greek  tragic  poet. 

SPALDING,  MARTIN  JOHN  (1810-1872),  an  American  arch- 
bishop. 

SPENCER,  HERBERT  (1820—),  an  English  philosopher,  son  of 
a  teacher. 

SPENSER,  EDMUND  (1553-1599),  an  English  poet. 

SPINOZA,  BARUCH  (1632-1677),  a  Dutch  philosopher  born  in 
Amsterdam  of  Jewish  parents.  His  father  was  a  Portuguese  mer- 
chant who  fled  to  Holland  to  escape  persecution. 

STAEL-HOLSTEIN,  ANNE  LOUISE  GERMAINE  NECKER 
DE  (1766-1817)  [34],  a  French  authoress,  only  child  of  Finance  Min- 
ister Necker  (1732-1804). 

STEPHENS,  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  (1812-1883),  an 
American  statesman,  youngest  son  of  Alexander  B.  Stephens,  who 
was  son  of  Alexander  Stephens  (born  about  1715  to  1725?)  who  set- 
tled in  Pennsylvania  in  1746  and  who  was  in  England  an  adherent  of 
Prince  Charles  Edward. 

STEPHENSON,  GEORGE  (1781-1848),  an  English  railway  en- 
gineer and  inventor.  At  18  he  could  not  read.  He  was  son  of  Robert 
Stephenson,  a  fireman.  His  son  Robert  Stephenson  (1803-1859)  [22], 
was  also  an  engineer. 

STEVENS,  EDWIN  AUGUSTUS  (1795-1868)  [46],  an  Ameri- 
can inventor  and  founder  of  Stevens'  Institute  of  Technology,  son  of 
John  Stevens  (1749-1838),  an  inventor. 


APPENDIX.  329 

STEVENS,  ROBERT  LIVINGSTON  (1788-1856)  [39],  an  in- 
ventor, brother  of  the  preceding. 

STEWART,  DUGALD  (1753-1828)  [36],  a  Scottish  metaphysi- 
cian, son  of  Rev.  Dr.  Matthew  Stewart  (1717-1785),  professor  of 
mathematics. 

STORY,  JOSEPH  (1779-1845)  [36],  an  American  jurist,  son  of 
Dr.  Elisha  Story  (1743—). 

STORY,  WILLIAM  WETMORE  (1819—)  [40],  an  American 
sculptor,  son  of  Judge  Joseph  Story  (1779-1845)  [36]. 

STRADIVARIUS,  ANTONIO  (1644-1737),  an  Italian  violin 
maker. 

SUAREZ,  FRANCISCO  (1548-1617),  a  Spanish  theologian. 

SULLA,  LUCIUS  CORNELIUS  (B.  C.  138-78)  [105-7-2?],  dic- 
tator of  Rome  in  B.  C.  81.  His  grandfather  was  praetor  B.  C.  186. 
For  six  generations=253~f-6. 

SUMNER,  CHARLES  (1811-1874)  [35],  an  American  states- 
man, son  of  Charles  Pinckney  Sumner  (1776 — ),  a  lawyer. 

SWEDENBORG,  EMANUEL  (1688-1772)  [35],  a  Swedish  phil- 
osopher, son  of  Jasper  Swedberg  (1653-1735),  bishop  of  Skara. 

SWIFT,  JONATHAN  (1667-1745)  [27],  a  British  author,  pos- 
thumous son  of  Jonathan  Swift  (1640 — )  [45],  who  was  son  of 
Thomas  Swift  (1595 — )  [A],  who  was  son  of  Thomas  Swift,  who 
was  a  preacher  in  1570. 

TALLEYRAND-PERIGORD,  CHARLES  MAURICE  (1754- 
1838),  a  French  statesman,  eldest  son  of  Count  de  Talleyrand-Peri- 
gord. 

TANEY,  ROGER  BROOKE  (1777-1864),  an  American  jurist. 

TASSO,  TORQUATO  (1544-1595)  [51],  an  Italian  poet,  son  of 
the  poet  Bernardo  Tasso  (1493-1569). 

TENNYSON,  ALFRED  (1809-1892)  [59-r-2],  an  English  poet, 
fourth  of  twelve  children  of  Rev.  George  Clayton  Tennyson,  who  was 
son  of  George  Tennyson  (1750-1835). 


330 


APPENDIX. 


THACKERY,  WILLIAM  MAKEPEACE  (1811-1863),  an  Eng- 
lish author. 

THEINER,  AUGUSTIN  (1804-1874),  a  German  historian.  His 
brother  Johann  Anton  Theiner  (1799-1860),  was  a  theologian. 

THIERS,  LOUIS  ADOLPHE  (1797-1877),  a  French  statesman. 

THOMSON,  WILLIAM  (Lord  Kelvin)  (1824—),  a  British 
mathematician.  His  elder  brother  James  Thomson  (1816 — ),  was  a 
civil  engineer. 

THORWALDSEN,  BESTEL  (1770-1844),  a  Danish  sculptor, 
son  of  an  Icelandic  wood  carver. 

TISCHENDORF,  LOBEGOTT  FRIEDRICH  CONSTANTIN 
VON  (1815-1874),  a  German  Biblical  palaeographer. 

TITIAN  (1477-1576),  an  Italian  painter,  youngest  of  four  chil- 
dren. 

TORREY,  JOHN   (1796-1873),  an  American  botanist. 

TOUSSAINT,  FRANCOIS  DOMINIQUE  (1743-1803),  a  Hay- 
tian  general.  His  parents  were  slaves  of  pure  negro  blood. 

TREVIRANUS,  GOTTFRIED  REINHOLD  (1776-1837),  a 
German  naturalist.  His  brother  Ludolf  Christian  Treviranus  (1779- 
1864),  was  a  botanist. 

TREVITHICK,  RICHARD  (1771-1833)  [36],  English  inventor 
of  the  steam  carriage,  son  of  Richard  Trevithick  (1735 — ). 

TROLLOPE,  ANTHONY  (1815-1882)  [35+x],  an  English  nov- 
elist, son  of  Anthony  Trollope,  a  lawyer.  His  mother,  Frances  (Mil- 
ton) Trollope  (1780-1836),  was  also  a  novelist. 

TROMP,  CORNELIS  VAN  (1629-1691)  [32],  a  Dutch  admiral 
son  of  Maarten  Harpertzoon  van  Tromp  (1597-1653),  also  an  admiral. 

TRUMBULL,  JOHN  (1756-1843)  [46],  an  American  painter,  son 
of  Jonathan  Trumbull  (1710-1785),  an  American  revolutionist. 

TURNER,  JOSEPH  MALLORD  WILLIAM  (1775-1851),  an 
English  painter,  son  of  William  Turner,  a  hairdresser. 


APPENDIX.  331 

TYNDALL,  JOHN  (1820-1893),  a  British  natural  philosopher,  son 
of  John  Tyndall. 

VANDYKE,  SIR  ANTHONY  (1599-1641),  a  Flemish  painter, 
the  seventh  of  twelve  children  of  Francis  Van  Dyke. 

VANE,  SIR  HENRY  (1612-1662)  [24],  an  English  statesman 
and  colonial  governor  of  Massachusetts,  son  of  Sir  Henry  Vane  (1589- 
1655),  secretary  of  state,  who  was  son  of  Henry  Vane  of  Hadlow 
by  his  second  wife. 

VERDI,  GIUSEPPE  (1814—),  an  Italian  composer. 

VERNET,  JEAN  EMILE  HORACE  (1789-1863)  [31],  a  French 
painter,  the  last  of  four  generations  of  painters,  all  eminent.  He  was 
son  of  Antoine  Charles  Horace  Vernet  (1758-1836)  [44],  who  was  son 
of  Claude  Joseph  Vernet  (1714-1789)  [25],  who  was  the  eldest  son 
among  twenty-two  children  of  Antoine  Vernet  (1689-1753).  Of  the 
other  sons  of  this  large  family;  Antoine  Ignace  (1726-1775  [37]; 
Frangois  Gabriel  (1728 — )  [39]  ;  Antoine  Francois  (i73°~I779)  U1]* 
appear  to  have  been  the  more  eminent  ones. 

VILLEMAIN,  ABEL  FRANCOIS  (1790-1870),  a  French  author. 

VILLIERS,  CHARLES  PELHAM  (1802-1898)  [43],  an  English 
statesman,  son  of  George  Villiers  (1759-1827)  [50],  who  was  son  of 
Thomas  Villiers  (1709-1786). 

VILLIERS,  GEORGE  WILLIAM  FREDERICK  (earl  of  Clar- 
endon), (1800-1870)  [41],  an  English  statesman,  brother  of  the  pre- 
ceding. 

VINCI,  LEONARDO  DA  (1452-1519),  an  Italian  painter,  sculp- 
tor, architect  and  physicist,  natural  son  of  Pietro  da  Vinci,  who  did 
not  die  till  1504.  Da  Vinci  is  credited  with  having  the  most  remarka- 
ble intellect  of  his  age. 

VIRCHOW,  RUDOLF  (1821-1902),  a  German  physiologist. 
VIRGIL  (B.  C.  70-19),  a  Roman  poet. 

VISCONTI,  ENNIO  QUIRINO  (1751-1818),  an  Italian  archae- 
ologist. His  son  Louis  Tullius  Joachim  Visconti  (1791-1853)  [40], 
was  a  French  architect. 


332  APPENDIX. 

VOLTA,  ALESSANDRO  (1745-1827),  an  Italian  physicist. 

VOLTAIRE,  FRANCOIS  MARIE  AROUET  DE  (1694-1778), 
a  French  author,  son  of  a  treasurer  of  the  chamber  of  accounts.  His 
only  brother  was  ten  years  his  senior. 

WAGNER,  MORITZ  FRIEDRICH  (1813-—),  a  German  natu- 
ralist. 

WAGNER,  RUDOLPH  (1805-1864),  a  German  physiologist, 
brother  of  Moritz. 

WAGNER,  RICHARD  (1813-1883),  a  German  composer,  son  of 
an  actuary  of  police,  and  an  orphan  in  infancy. 

WAGNER,  RUDOLF  JOHANNES  (1823—),  a  German  chem- 
ist. 

WALLACE,  ALFRED  RUSSEL  (1822—),  an  English  naturalist. 
He  was  a  younger  son. 

WALLACE,  SIR  WILLIAM  (1270-1305),  a  Scottish  patriot, 
younger  son  of  Sir  Malcolm  Wallace. 

WALLENSTEIN,  ALBRECHT  WENZEL  EUSEBIUS  VON 
(1583-1634),  an  Austrian  general.  He  was  an  orphan  at  an  early  age. 

WALPOLE,  SIR  ROBERT  (1676-1745)  [26],  an  English  states- 
man, fifth  child  of  Robert  Walpole  (1650 — )  [a?],  who  was  eldest  of 
thirteen  children  of  Edward  Walpole. 

WALPOLE,  HORACE  (1717-1797)  [41],  an  English  author, 
youngest  son  of  the  preceding. 

WASHINGTON,  GEORGE  (1732-1799)  [38],  first  president  of 
the  United  States,  son  of  Augustine  Washington  (1694 — )  [33].  The 
mother  of  Washington  was  Mary  Ball  (1706 — )  [A2],  who  was 
daughter  of  Col.  Joseph  Ball,  probably  born  before  1650. 

WATT,  JAMES  (1736-1819)  [38],  a  Scottish  inventor,  son  of 
James  Watt  (1698-1782)  [56],  who  was  son  of  Thomas  Watt,  (1642- 
1734),  a  teacher  of  mathematics. 

WEBB,  JAMES  WATSON  (1802-1884)  [49],  an  American  jour- 
nalist, son  of  Samuel  B.  Webb  (1753-1807). 


APPENDIX.  333 

WEBER,  KARL  MARIA  FRIEDRICH  ERNST  VON  (1786- 
1826),  a  German  composer,  son  of  a  musician. 

WEBSTER,  DANIEL  (1782-1852)  [43],  an  American  statesman, 
son  of  Ebenezer  Webster  (1739 — )  [25],  a  lawyer  who  was  son  of 
Ebenezer  Webster  (1714 — )  [47],  who  was  son  of  Ebenezer  Web- 
ster (1667—)  [35]. 

WEBSTER,   NOAH   (1758-1843),  an  American  philologist. 

WEDGWOOD,  JOSIAH  (1730-1795)  [43],  an  English  potter, 
thirteenth  and  youngest  child  of  Thomas  Wedgwood  (1687 — )  [27J> 
who  was  son  of  Thomas  Wedgwood  (1660 — ). 

WELLESLEY,  ARTHUR  (duke  of  Wellington)  (1769-1852) 
[34],  a  British  soldier,  third  son  of  Garret  Wellesley  (1735 — )  [45], 
first  earl  of  Mornington,  who  was  son  of  Richard  Galley  Wellesley 
(1690 — ),  who  was  youngest  son  of  Henry  Colley  Wellesley. 

WELLESLEY,  RICHARD  COLLEY  (1760-1842)  [25],  a  Brit- 
ish statesman,  brother  of  the  duke  of  Wellington. 

WELLS,  HORACE  (1815-1848),  an  American  dentist,  a  claim- 
ant of  the  discovery  of  anaesthesia. 

WESLEY,  JOHN  (1703-1791)  [41],  an  English  clergyman, 
founder  of  Methodism,  son  of  Rev.  Samuel  Wesley  (1662-1735) 
[67-1-2],  a  clergyman  who  was  grandson  of  Rev.  Bartholomew  Wes- 
ley (1595—)- 

WEST,  BENJAMIN  (1738-1820)  [A?],  an  Anglo-American 
painter,  the  youngest  of  ten  children  of  John  West. 

WHARTON,  PHILIP  (1698-1731)  [50],  an  English  statesman, 
created  duke  of  Wharton,  son  of  Thomas  Wharton  (1648-1715)  [35], 
eldest  son  of  Philip  Wharton  (1613-1696). 

WHATELY,  RICHARD  (1787-1863),  an  English  prelate. 
WHEATON,  HENRY  (1785-1848),  an  American  publicist. 

WHEATSTONE,  SIR  CHARLES  (1802-1875),  an  English 
physicist. 

WHITEFIELD,  GEORGE  (1714-1770),  an  English  clergyman, 
son  of  an  innkeeper  and  an  orphan  as  a  child. 


APPENDIX. 

WHITNEY,  ELI  (1765-1825)  [25],  inventor  of  the  cotton-gin, 
son  of  Eli  Whitney  (1740—)  [44]- 

WHITTIER,  JOHN  GREENLEAF  (1807-1892),  an  American 
poet,  son  of  John  Whittier,  who  was  tenth  child  of  Joseph  Whittier. 

WIELAND,  CHRISTOPH  MARTIN  (1733-1813),  a  German 
author,  son  of  a  clergyman. 

WIERTZ,  ANTOINE  JOSEPH  (1806-1865),  a  Belgian  painter. 

WILBERFORCE,  ROBERT  ISAAC  (1802-1857)  [43],  an  Eng- 
lish clergyman,  son  of  the  philanthropist  William  Wilberforce  (1759- 


WILBERFORCE,,  SAMUEL  (1805-1873)  [46],  an  English 
bishop,  brother  of  the  preceding. 

WILLIAMS,  ROGER  (1599-1683),  founder  of  Rhode  Island, 
second  son  of  William  Williams. 

WILLIS,  NATHANIEL  PARKER  (1806-1867)  [26],  an  Amer- 
ican author,  son  of  Nathaniel  Willis  (1780-1870),  a  journalist. 

WOHLER,  FRIEDRICH   (1800—),  a  German  chemist. 

WOLCOTT,  OLIVER  (1726-1797)  [47],  an  American  jurist, 
son  of  Roger  Wolcott  (1679-1767). 

WOLLASTON,  WILLIAM  HYDE  (1766-1828)  [  107-^3],  an 
English  natural  philosopher  and  inventor,  son  of  Rev.  Francis  Wol- 
laston,  who  was  grandson  of  William  Wollaston  (1659-1724). 

WOLSEY,  THOMAS  (1471-1530),  an  English  prelate. 

WORDSWORTH,  WILLIAM   (1770-1850),  an  English  poet. 

WORDSWORTH,  CHRISTOPHER  (1774-1846),  an  English 
clergyman,  youngest  brother  of  the  preceding.  He  had  sons  Christo- 
pher (1807  —  )  [33],  and  Charles  (1806)  [32],  who  were  the  eminent 
members  of  the  next  generation. 

WREN,  SIR  CHRISTOPHER  (1632-1723),  an  English  architect. 

WYCLIFFE,  JOHN  DE  (1324-1384),  an  English  reformer. 

XIMINES  DE  CISNEROS,  FRANCISCO  (1436-1517),  a  Span- 
ish statesman. 

ZWINGLI,  ULRIC  (1484-1531),  a  Swiss  reformer. 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Abdallah 37 

Abnormal    development 207 

Abortion    206 

Acacias 35 

Acquired  disease  transmitted. .  44,  207 

Acawoios    201 

Acceleration,  law  of 39 

Acorns  25 

Acquired  characters. 49,  52,  59, 61,  254 
Acquired    functional   capacity...     76 

Acquired  sterility 262,  263 

Activity  235 

Acute  sexual  characters 215 

Adams   100, 109 

Adaptation  to  circumstances. 263,  267 
Advantageous  variations, 

194,  196, 199,  201 

Afghans  204 

Age  at  marriage 126, 195,  202 

Ages  of  males  and  females,  rela- 
tive  135,  172,  259,  261 

Aggregate   use    75 

Aggressive  age  164 

Alcibiades  128 

Alexander  the  Great, 

126,  155,  171,  173,  193 

Alfred  the  Great 134 

Algeria  204 

Allen  225 

Amazon  Indians  200,  201 

Ancient  times 1 16 

Andaman  Islands   196, 198,  202 

Anderson 27 

Angus  bull  32 

Animals   217 

Animals  in  captivity 263 

Ants   231 

335 


PAGE 

Apes  217 

Aphides  231 

Appleton   38 

Arabs  259 

Arabian  horse 27 

Archidamus   129 

Aristocracy  192 

Aristotle   50,  51, 90, 127, 161, 172 

Art   261 

Artists,  longevity  of 239 

Artistic  age  164 

Artizans 195 

Ass   31 

Assumptions    74,  257 

Atavism  33 

Athans   126 

Audubon  103 

Augustus 130,  162,  163 

Australians   200,  258 

Average  age  at  reproduction, 

84,  88, 196,  268 

Average  birth-ranks  no 

Average  functional  capacity 75 

Average  use 75 

Bach  family 179 

Bachelors    195 

Bacon  134, 172 

Ball,  Mary  105 

Barbary  bitch    31 

Barrington    170 

Basis  of  investigation 59,  84 

Beard 254, 257,  258 

Beardless  races 258 

Beaver  227 

Beecher  93 

Bees  229 


336 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Beethoven  261 

Berkley,  Gov, 71 

Bernouilli  family  182 

Biblical  history 1 19 

Biography,  Dictionary  of 68 

Biological  use  and  disuse 74,  258 

Birds 229 

Birth-ranks 85,  86, 1 16, 1 18 

Birth-ranks  and  longevity 240 

Birth-ranks  of  mammals 233 

Birth-ranks,  standard  table  of . . .     85 

Birth-ranks,  successive  high 162 

Bliss  family 185 

Blushing   29 

Body  79 

Bornu  201 

Bower 31 

Boy-fathers 259 

Brain   61,  79, 249,  255, 257 

Brain  growth 77 

Brain  power 78, 82, 107, 251 

Brain  size 65,  77, 251 

Brain  of  men  and  women  com- 
pared     255 

Breeding  43,  220 

British  monarchs 121 

Broca   65,  200 

Buddha   124, 173, 190 

Bulls  226 

Bulls,  hornless  27 

Bumble  bees 229 

Burke's  Peerages  192 

Burns  174, 177,  261 

Bushmen 196,  199,  204 

Butterflies  230 

Byron 174,  261 

Caesar  131 

Cancer   35 

Candolle    28 

Carnot  family 182 

Carpzov  family 181 

Cato   131 

Cats 37 


PAGE 

Cattle  27, 32,  224,  269 

"Cecil"  31,32 

Cells   52,  72, 257 

Cell  division 52,  72,  246 

Cell  division,  rapid 250 

Central  America 200 

Champolion    191 

Chance ; 90 

Channing    106,  170, 171 

Characters  at  different  ages 164 

Characters     affected     by     birth- 
ranks  166, 169 

Charin    206 

Charles  1 74,  138,  191 

Charles  XII 155 

Charmoise  breed  of  sheep 45 

Chastity 198,  202 

Chatterton 261 

Chicago   90 

Children    244 

Chimpanzee 218 

Chinese    204 

Chiquitoes   201 

Circumcision    51 

City  girls 236 

Civilization  and  sterility 262 

Classes  of  population 62 

Classification  of  birth-ranks 85 

Clay    96 

Clergy,  longevity  of 239 

Cley   206 

Climate    244 

Climate  and  puberty 237,  244 

Coccus 231 

Colborn  family 28 

Coligny  family 183 

College  education 100,  252 

College  men in 

Common  ancestry   74 

Common  fowls  32,  229 

Communal  marriages  198 

Communities  of  different  classes    62 

Comparisons    83 

Comparison  of  animals 217 


INDEX. 


337 


PAGE 

Conception   248 

Conde  family 188 

Conflict  of  theories 56 

Confucius  123, 172,  173,  204 

Congenital   characters 49,  254 

Congenital  variations   49,  56 

Consumption    38 

Cooper  96 

Country  girls 236 

Cousins,  marriage  of. 44 

Cow    224 

Cranial  capacity 65,  251 

Cresceus    224 

Crime    213,  214 

Criminals 209,  211 

Cromwell    74, 138, 191 

Crow 229 

Curses  of  civilization 21 

Customs  of  Australians 200 

Cuvier    139 

Cycle  of  causes  and  effects. .  .267,  269 

Dana  family 185 

Dante  174 

Dark  ages 67 

Darwin   28,  29,  31,  34,  38,  42, 

49, 136,  238,  252, 254,  259 

Darwin,  ancestry  of 136 

David 119,  122 

Day    27,  31,  34,  218 

Decatur   170 

Decaying  races  198,  216, 244 

Decemet    35 

Deer   227 

Degeneracy    206,238,250,268 

Degeneracy  from  old  parents, 

207,  208,  251 

Degenerate  children   207 

Degenerate  classes 208, 215 

Degenerate  families 208,  211 

Degenerate  races 196 

Delay  of  marriage 205 

Delay  of  puberty 236,  238,  243 

Denby 69 


PAGE 

Development 77, 235,  245, 249,  255 

Development  at  different  ages, 

76,  78,  234 

Development,  rate  of 238,  252,  255 

Different  races   196 

Different  sons 194 

Different  sons,  longevity  of 241 

Digger  Indians 196,  197,  205 

Diseases    37,  38, 207, 212 

Disuse 74,  77,  248 

Division  of  cells 52,  248,  250 

Dogs    27,  31,  33,  37, 49,  225 

Dominant  race  of  the  future 268 

Dormant  characters 44 

Dublin 87 

Ducks  49 

Dugdale 211, 213 

Dumas  158 

Duncan    87 

Dwarfed  germ  cells 250 

Early  marriages 125, 194,  205 

Early  puberty,  cause  of.  .237,  238,  250 
Early  reproduction.  .189, 193,  196, 

202,  205,  213,  215, 237,  239,  266 

East  Africa  204 

Eclipse  219 

Edinburgh  87 

Educated  ancestors.  .100, 108,  in,  270 

Educated  classes 63, 195 

Educated  generations.  .65,  67, 108, 126 

Educating  the  grandfather 270 

Education  22, 67,  70, 270 

Education,  increase  of 67 

Edwards  101 

Egyptians  203 

Eldest  son, 

ioo,  118, 170, 187, 192, 194, 214 

Elephant  228 

Elliott  227 

Emerson  115,  261 

Eminent  families  178 

Eminent  men,  descendants  of 64 

Eminent  relatives  174 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Eminent  sons   194 

Encouraging  large  families 265 

England 7o 

English  aristocracy   192,  239 

English  custom 170 

English  sheep  45 

English  thoroughbreds    . .  .27,  30,  218 

Environment  49,  244,  267 

Eskimos    196, 238, 258 

Estimating  birth-ranks 116 

Evolution    235,  268 

Exercise    248,  249 

Exhaustion  216,  268 

Expectancy  of  life 239, 242 

Factors  of  inheritance 112,  232 

Facts  of  heredity 18 

Fame  and  greatness 92, 113 

Families   178 

Family  relations 270 

Farragut  104 

Fatigue   248 

Fellahs  203 

Female  influence 107 

Female  puberty 236 

Fingers,  six  27 

Finland   87 

Fishes  234 

Fixity  of  character 46 

Flower 198 

Flying  squirrel   226 

Food  of  Bushmen 199 

Formula  for  inheritance 80 

Fowls  32,34 

Fox 121 

Fox-terrier 34 

Franklin    72, 102,  108, 162, 21 1 

Fruit  from  immature  seeds 250 

Fuegians 196,  197,  201,  204 

Fulton    96 

Function    59 

Function  of  organs 29,  33 

Functional  activity 59,  60, 66, 247 

Functional  capacity  .  .61,  247,  249,  253 


PAGE 

Functional  condition 247, 248, 249 

Functional  condition,  changes  in  258 

Functional  power 47 

Functional    power    at    different 

ages    257 

Functionally    developed    charac- 
ters     252 

Functionless  organs 257 

Gaboon  River,  tribes  on 201,  205 

Galton   64,  70,  77, 139, 178, 

191,  194, 244,  262,  266 

George  Wilkes   221,  223,  256 

Germ  cells  53,  54,  73,  246,  250 

Germ  plasm 50,  53,  66,  73,  224 

Geyelin    229 

Girou    29 

Glasgow  87 

Goats   37 

Goethe   174, 175, 176,  261 

Goldsmith  Maid  37, 219 

Gorilla  217 

Gout  37,38 

Grant   100, 104, 171 

Gray  102,  109,  in 

Great  men  . .  .69,  74, 116, 133, 142, 161 

Great  men,  sons  of. 64,  179, 190 

Great  men,  tables  of 144  to  154 

Grecchus  132 

Greece  19, 66, 125, 261,  267 

Greeks  129, 203, 205 

Ground  squirrel  226 

Growth .46,  53,  245 

Guiana  205 

Guinea  pig 228 

Habit  of  organs 247 

Hair   37,59 

Hairless  dogs 31 

Half-breeds  3i,45 

Hall  of  Fame 83,  93 

Hambletonian    37,  221 

Handel 173 

Hartmann  218 

Hart  wig  200 


INDEX. 


339 


PAGE 

Hawthorne    261 

Haycraft 64, 70, 195, 244 

Heirs   192 

Heiresses,  sterility  of 262 

Helm    35,  37 

Helvetius    170, 172 

Hereditary  advantages 178,  192 

Hereditary  monarchs 69, 133,  239 

Heredity,  dynamical  17 

Heredity,  structural 17 

Heredity  and  variation 48 

Heredity,  laws  of 18, 26 

Herschel   136 

Hibernating  animals 226 

Hibernation   226 

Hindus 203,  259 

Hippopotamus 228 

Holmes    270 

Homer 66,  261 

Honey  bee  230 

Horns    37 

"Horseman"   224,  256 

Horses,  27,  30,  31, 37, 218,  256, 262,  269 

Hottentots 199 

Howard  69 

Huber 231 

Humboldt  140,  229 

Hunt    191 

Hunter 138 

Huxley    27,  218 

Hyatt   39 

Illegitimate  children 209,  212,  215 

Immature  animals  220 

Immature  germ  cells 250 

Immature  parents   215,  259 

Immature  seeds 250 

Immaturity 250 

Immorality 201, 202,  210 

In-and-in    breeding 43, 121, 177 

Incas 252 

Increase  of  intellectual  power. . .  244 
Increase  of  population, 

63,  265, 266,  268 


PAGE 

Increase  of  size 251 

India    203 

Indians 197, 199, 205 

Indianapolis 208,  211 

Inebriates  207 

Inertia  247 

Infanticide   21,  202 

Infant  mortality 243 

Influence  of  mothers 107,179 

Inheritance 27 

Inheritance      at      corresponding 

ages    38,252 

Inheritance  by  sex 36,  38, 220, 254 

Inheritance   of  acquired  charac- 
ters   52, 61,  232 

Inheritance    of    acquired    func- 
tional capacity 6l,  66 

Inheritance,  variation  and  selec- 
tion         25 

Inherited  functional  capacity 75 

Inherited  mutilations 50,  51 

Inherited  position   158 

Insanity  38 

Insects   229 

Intellectual  differences 63,  255 

Intoxicants,  effects  of 44,  239 

Inventions     71 

Ireland 88 

Irving    102, 104 

"Ishmael"  family  208,  237 

Italy   125 

Jamaica  237 

Jews  51 

Joseph    119. 

"Jukes"  211, 237 

Jussien,  de  28, 117 

Kabyles   204 

Kafirstan 204 

Kangaroo   49 

Kelleia  27 

Kiernan  207,  208 

Kinetogenesis    52 


340 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Lake  Tchad 201 

Lamarck   51, 139, 205,  232 

Lamarck's  laws 5i>  232 

Lankester   229, 238,  239 

Lao-tse 124 

Latitude  and  development 258 

Latitude  and  puberty 237 

Law  of  acceleration 39 

Law  of  probabilities.  .61, 65, 90, 92, 96 

Law  of  use  and  disuse 52 

Lawyers,  longevity  of 239 

Least  resistance,  lines  of 214 

Left-handed  family  29 

Lee  104,  170, 171 

Legal  age 78 

Legal  restraints 265 

Lepine       28 

Leslie   121 

Lincoln    106, 109, 193 

Literary  age 164 

Literature    167, 261 

Livingston  family 184 

Locke   170, 172, 261 

Lombroso   155, 156, 168 

Longevity  23,  231, 238 

Longevity  and  birth-rank 240 

Longevity  of  different  races 244 

Longevity  of  different  sons 241 

Longfellow 108, 174 

Louis  XIV 155 

Low  races 197 

Lower  animals ,. . .  217 

Loyola   119 

Lubbock 231 

Lugol  38 

Luxury  and  puberty 238 

Lycurgus,  laws  of 126 

Mammals    233 

Marcellus  Claudius 132 

Margaret  the  mother  of  crimi- 
nals   212 

Marriage,  age  at.  .89, 90, 126, 202, 205 
Marriage  customs . . .  195,  202,  203,  205 


PAGE 

Marriage  presents  198 

Marriage  relations 199 

Marshall   107 

Masai  204 

Mather,  Cotton 103, 170, 172 

Mather,  Increase   172 

Maturity,  age  at 76,  252 

McCullock , 208,  210 

McGillivray    32 

Megalomania  155 

Men  and  women,  relative  num- 
bers of 200 

Mental  activity 235 

Mental  aptitude  164,  239 

Mental  aptitude  and  longevity..  239 

Mental  power  261 

Mental  power  and  mental  apti- 
tude   175,  260 

Miles    31,32,88 

Militarism  167 

Milton    174 

Miners 195 

Modern  history 133 

Mohammed 125, 173, 193 

Mongrel  stock 45 

Monogamous  animals 259 

Moral  age 165 

Moralists 165, 166 

Morality    198 

Morton,  Earl  of 30 

Moses    119, 120, 162 

Moths    230 

Moxos   201 

M'pongwes  201 

Mules  31 

Musicians  167 

Mutilations,  inheritance  of 50 

Nancy  Hanks 106 

Napoleon    35, 140, 156, 171 

Negritoes    200 

Nelson   170 

Nee-Darwinians  55,  72 

Neo-Lamarckians   55 


INDEX. 


341 


PAGE 

Nervous  parents 207 

New  England 71 

New  Zealand 244 

Nichomachus   127 

Nipples    28 

Nobility 192 

Normal  use  75 

Oaks  25 

"Old  Parr" 121 

Opportunities  ,  179 

Orang-utan    218 

Organs  30,  59, 257 

Origin  of  degenerate  classes 215 

Orinoco  Indians  201 

Ourali  poison  202 

Ova  54 

Paget,  Sir  James 29 

Parasites  206,  233 

Parents    265 

Parents,  political  justice  to 265 

Parr,  "Old" 121 

Parrot 229, 233 

Partial  transmission  35 

Patagonians    197,  205 

Pauperism    209,  214 

Peers,  longevity  of 239 

Pericles  126,  128 

Persistency  of  force 247 

Peter  the  Great 133 

Philip  of  Macedon... 127 

Philippine  Islands   200 

Philips  38 

Philosophical  age 165 

Philosophers    166 

Physical  training 76,  270 

Physical  weakness  211 

Pigeons   38 

Pigs 32,35 

Pitt  138 

Plato    128 

Pliny    132 

Poetic  age 164 


PAGE 

Poets  167, 174 

Pointer    34 

Polygamous  animals 234,  259 

Polynesians    21, 202, 205 

Pope   174,176 

Popham  170 

Population,  increase  of 63 

Power,  mental    261 

Power  and  aptitude,  mental 260 

Practical  age 165 

Premature  marriages   203 

Premeditated  sterility —  263 

Prepotency  44 

Primogeniture  192 

Probabilities  103, 161, 162 

Probabilities,  law  of.  .61,  65,  90,  92,  96 

Professional  classes 195 

Progress,  promotion  of 269 

Prolific  classes 63 

Prominent  men 79 

Prominent  men,  sons  of 74,  79 

Prostitutes   207,  210,  216 

Protoplasm   52 

Ptolemy  II 129, 203 

Puberty  39,  88,  236,  238,  254,  269 

Puberty  affected  by  latitude, 

88, 238,  244 

Puberty,  delay  of 236, 244 

Pure-blood   animals 45 

Quagga 30 

Quatrefages    35,  236 

Queen  ant,  length  of  life  of 231 

Queen  bees 230 

Rabbits 206,  226 

Race  of  the  future  268 

Races  of  men 194 

Raciborski 237 

Ram   32 

Rameses  II 203 

Rapid  generations  194, 204,  209 

Rapidly  reproducing  classes 63 

Rate  of  development 252,  255 


342 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Reciprocal  crosses  45 

Record  of  the  centuries 65,  68 

Redfield  Genealogy, 

84, 103, 1 1 8,  162,241 

Rehoboam 122, 190 

Related  races 197, 199, 201 

Relative  ages  of  male  and  female  259 

Relative  influence  of  parents 113 

Relative  intelligence   63 

Relatives  178 

Repair 47, 246 

Repairing  organs  247,  251. 

Reproduction   232 

Reproduction,  age  at 132, 196 

Reproduction,  restriction  of 266 

Reproduction  as  temporary  dis- 
use    249 

Restriction  of  child  bearing, 

64,  264,  267 

Revival  of  learning 67 

Rise  of  races 235,252 

Rives,  Ainelie  121 

Romans  203,  205 

Rome  19, 66, 125, 235, 267 

Sahara  204 

Sanders    37,  219,  220 

Sandwich  Islands 244 

Scale  of  birth-ranks 85 

Scalp  moving 28 

Schiller  174,  177 

Scipio 131 

Scotland 70, 

Seals 

Secondary  sexual  characters. 36, 
Secondary  sexual  characters  and 

intelligence 257 

Sedgwick    38 

Seeds,  immature 250 

Selection 40,  196,  201, 

220,  240,  259,  269 

Seneca  132 

Seti   I    203 

Setter    34,37 


87 

227 

38 


Sexual  excesses. 216,  237,  250 

Sexual    instincts    215 

Sexual  intensity 215,  237,  259 

Sexual   maturity    259 

Sexual    reproduction    246 

Sexual  selection    42,  260 

Sexually  developed   characters. .  256 

Shakespeare 134,    177,  262 

Sheep 32,  37,  45,  49,  225,  251 

Shell    fish 233 

Shopkeepers    195 

Size  and  shape 60 

Skulls    65 

Socrates   126,  128 

Social    conditions 263,  264 

Soldiers     167 

Solomon   119,  122,  190 

Somatic  cells 53 

Sons  of  great  men.  .64,  122,    178,  190 
Sons  of  prominent  men   ....74,    79 

Southern  Europe  125 

Sovereigns,   longevity  of    239 

Spaniel   34,    37 

Sparta  126,  129 

Spencer     214 

Spermatozoa    54 

Spinsters  195 

Squirrel  226 

Stability    247 

Stallions     219,  223 

Standard  of  comparison 83,    90 

Statesmen    166,  260 

Stature    199 

Stephenson     158 

Sterile  animals  263 

Sterility    206,  262 

Stimulated    organs    252 

Stockwell    219 

Strength    60 

Stuart    96 

Successive  generations    162, , 

189,  192,  215,  253,  257 
Successive  high  birth-ranks .  162, 

177,  193,  205 


INDEX. 


343 


PAGE 

Suffield,  Earl  of 30 

Sulla    131 

Surplus  use  76 

Sweden    : .     87 

Swift  173,  193,  261 

Table  of  birth-ranks    85 

Table   of   characters   and   birth- 
ranks    169 

Tables  of  great  men 144-154 

Table   of   great    men   and    their 

sons    190 

Tachygenesis   39 

Talbot  50,  207,  208 

Teeth   35 

Telegony 30,    32 

Ten  greatest  men 161 

Theories  of  heredity   48 

Thibet    , .  204 

Thoroughbred  horses    218,  223 

Time  and  activity   76,    81 

Time  as  a  factor  of  evolution..  235 

Time    in   heredity    76,  235 

Toes    27,    35 

Touaregs     204 

Touchstone    219 

Training 23,  76,  126,  269 

Transference  to  opposite  sex...  255 
Transmission  by  sex.  .36,  38,  222,  261 
Transmission   of  acquired  char- 
acters      232 

Transmission  of  acquired  disease  207 
Transmission  of  color  in  horses    27 

Transmission  of  lameness 35 

Transmission,  partial   35 

Trotting    horses    37,  220 

Turks     259 

Turtles 233 

Tyler    267 

Uniform  functional  activity 253 

United   States 70 


PAGE 

United  toes  35 

Universities    67,    70 

Unlike  parents   50 

Use     , 74 

Use  and  disuse  49,  52,  56,  74,  249,  258 

Use-inheritance    58, 

59,  66,  76,  82,  205,  249 

Van  Tromp  170 

Variability    46 

Variation 26,  37,  48,  56,    62 

Variation,  amount  of 62 

Vicious  life   263 

Violent  exercise  248 

Virginia    71 

Voltigeur    219 

Wakamba   204 

Warali     203 

Washington    105 

Waste   47,  246 

Wauraus  204 

Webster  101,  108 

Wedgwood  138 

Weismann 52,  56,  72,  220 

Weismann's  theory 52,  56,    61 

Wells 32 

West  Africa   201 

White  mice   228 

White   race    244 

Whitney    102 

Widows     33 

Wolford's  Insurance  Cyclopedia    89 

Wood 218 

Worms    233 

Youatt  226 

Youngest  son 118,  213 

Young  males  259 

Young  mothers 261 

Youth    257 


14  DAY  USE 

1JRN  T°PESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 


on 


or 


•ewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall 

"KAY  24  1973 


1973X8 


LD  21-loOm-6,'56 
(B931l8lO)476 


.General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


u.  c. 


SS5KLEYLIBRARIES 


